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RISON J-^IFE 



OF 



J 



EFFER 



SON UaVIS 



EMBRACING DETAILS AND INCIDENTS IN HIS CAPTIVITY, PARTI- 
CULARS CONCERNING HIS HEALTH AND HABITS, TO- 
GETHER WITH MANY CONVERSATIONS ON 
TOPICS OF GREAT PUBLIC INTEREST. 



BY 

BvT. LiEUT.-CoL. JOHN J. CRAVEN, M.D., 

Late Surgeon U. S. Vols., and Pliysician of the Prisoner during his Confinement 
in Fortress Monroe, from May 25, 1865, up to December 25, 1865. 



" Had I died on the throne, enveloped in the dense 
atmosphere of power, I should to many have re- 
tnained a problem. Now, inisfortune will enable 
all to judge vie without disguise.^'' — napoleon 

BONAPARTE TO D. BAUKY O'mEARA. 



Mi^ 



NEW YORK : 

Carle ton ^ Publisher^ 4.13 Broadway. 

London: S. Low Son & Co. 

M DCCC LXVI. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by 

GEO. W. CARLETON, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Uniied States, for the Southern 
District of New York. 



The New York Printing Company 

81, 83, and Ss Cenire Street, 

New York. 



To 

The Hon. HUGH McCULLOCH, 

Secretary of the Treasury, 

WHO FIRST 

Of all our Northern Public Men 

HAS HAD THE WISDOM, MAGNANIMITY, AND COURAGE 

To express Sympathy for the Misfortunes 

OF 

THE SUBJECT OF OUR MEMOIR, 
BY 

A Visit to Mr. Davis in his cell at Fortress Monroe, 

THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED. 



CONTENTS 



Page 

CHAPTER 1. 

An Introduction by Anecdote. — The Old-fashioned Pre- 
face in a New Dress 1 1 

CHAPTER II. 
Fortress Monroe. — The Ceremonial of delivering Mr. 

Davis into Custody. — His first Day in the Casemate 21 

CHAPTER III. 
Placing Mr. Davis in Irons. — His Protest and his Strug- 
gles. — My First Visit to the Prisoner . . .33 

CHAPTER IV. 
Conversation with Mr. Davis on many Points. — The 
Removal of his Shackles demanded as a Medical 
Necessity 45 

CHAPTER V. 
Conversations of some Interest. — The Shackles Re- 
moved. — Mr. Davis on Various Scientific Subjects 58 

CHAPTER VI. 
Operations on the Southern Coast. — Davis Hears that 
he is Indicted and to be Tried. — His Joy. — Views 
of his own Defence 74 

CHAPTER VII. 
Mr. Davis on the New England Character. — Future 

of the South and Southern Blacks .... 90 



viii Contents* 



Page 



CHAPTER VIII. 
Mr. Davis on Cruelty to Prisoners. — Mexico. — Turtle 
on the Southern Coast. — The Southern Leaders an 
Aristocracy. — Lecture on the Fine Arts, by a 
Strange Man in a Strange Place .... 104 

CHAPTER IX. 
Mr. Davis on Gen. Butler and Dutch Gap. — He denies 
that Secession was Treason.— His opinion of Grant, - 
McClellan, Pope, and other Union Officers ; also of 
Bragg, Lee and Pemberton. — His Flight from 
Richmond and Arrest 119 

CHAPTER X. 
Diseases of the Eye. — Guards removed from the Prison- 
er's Room.— Mr. Davis takes his first Walk on the 
Ramparts. — The Policy of Conciliation. — Dr. Davis 
on Improvements in Land and Naval Warfare . 146 

CHAPTER XI. 
Mr. Lincoln's Assassination. — Ex-President Pierce. — 
Torture of being Constantly Watched. — Mr. Davis 
on the Members of his Cabinet and the Opponents 
of his Administration. — Touching Tribute to the 
Memory of " Stonewall " Jackson .... 163 

CHAPTER XII. 
Mr. Davis seriously 111. — Restrictions on Correspondence 
with his Wife. — Clement C. Clay. — A Rampart In- 
terview. — Rehgious Phase of Mr. Davis' Character 183 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Southern Migration to Mexico. — Mr. Calhoun's Mem- 
ory vindicated from one Charge. — Tribute to Albert 
Sidney Johnston. — Failure of Southern Iron-clads 
and Loss of the Mississippi 199 



Contents. ix 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Mr. Davis on Negro Character. — The Assassination of 
President Lincoln. — How the Prisoner's Food was 
Served. — A Solemn and Interesting Statement . 214 

CHAPTER XV. 
Southern Non-Belligerents. — The Ant-Lion and its 
Habits. — Mr. Davis on the Future of the Southern 
Blacks 228 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Mr. Davis on F.enianism. — Highly Important. — His 

Views of Reconstruction « 243 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Mr. Davis seriously 111. — Change of Quarters officially 
Recommended. — The Pictures and Poetry of the 
Bible. — Lafayette's Imprisonment. — Marvellous 
Memory and great Variety of Knowledge. — Mr. 
Davis on Female Lecturers. — The True Mission of 
Women 254 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Mr. Davis on Sensation News. — The Condition of the 
Negro. — Gen. Butler at Drury's Bluff. — Bishop 
Lynch and the Sisters of Charity. — A Story after 
the manner of President Lincoln .... 275 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Treason. — State and National. — The Fish-Hawk and 
Bald-Eagle.— Mr. Davis on Senator Benton, Fjc- 
President Buchanan, and President Andrew John- 
son. — Preparations to remove Mr. Davis to Carroll 

Hall. 291 

I* 



X Contents, 

Page 

CHAPTER XX. 

Visit to Richmond. — General Lee. — Mr. Davis on 

Horseback Exer-cise. — Macaulay's Pictorial Power 308 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Removal to Carroll Hall. — Some Curious Coincidences. 
— A Foolish Precaution. — Interesting Letter from 
Mrs. Davis. — Adventures of the Family from Incar- 
ceration of Mr. Davis up to date .... 323 

CHAPTER XXII. 

A New Regiment on Guard. — Ordered not to Commu- 
nicate with Mr. Davis, save on " Strictly Professional 
Matters." — The Correspondence about Prisoner's 
Overcoat 349 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
General Summary in Conclusion. — The Character of 

Mr. Davis. — Let us be merciful ! . . , . 368 



THE 



Prison Life of Jefferson Davis, 



CHAPTER I. 

An Introduction by Anecdote. — The Old-fash- 
ioned Preface in a New Dress. 

Late one summer evening, hot, hungry, dusty, 
thirsty, tired, exasperated, and full of venge- 
ful thoughts, I was riding down the road from 
the bloody and resultless encounter near Ber- 
muda Hundreds, to where my field hospitals 
had been established. Saul journeying to Da- 
mascus, breathing out threatenings against 
his enemies, was in no fiercer spirit. The 
day had been oppressively warm, our losses 
enormous, our gains nothing ; and worn out 
with the labor and wretchedness of superin^ 



12 The Prison Life 

tending the removal of the wounded, I was 
cantering wearily but rapidly back to where 
many hundred sufferers, in all stages of man- 
glement, lay awaiting the painful remedy of 
the surgeon's art. Never before had the re- 
bellion, with its attendant horrors, appeared so 
inhuman to my mind ; and if the hot hatreds 
of my soul could havg taken shape in words, 
I would have exclaimed, addressing the Con- 
federates under Beaureo^ard : 

" Oh, that each slave had forty thousand lives, 
One is too poor, too weak for my revenge ! " 

Half way between the battle-field and my 
hospitals, I overtook four of our boys in blue, 
under a corporal, tenderly carrying to the 
rear a stretcher on which lay a wounded 
rebel. 

Something tempted me to halt and dis- 
mount. God forgive m.e if it was a desire to 
assure myself that all the suffering had not 
been on our side. If so, the unworthy feel- 
ing was of brief duration ; for no sooner, 
throwing the reins to my orderly, did I stand 



of yefferson Davis. ■ 13 

beside the litter and gaze upon the pale 
pinched features of the wounded man, than 
all promptings of patriotic hatred vanished ; 
and there was nothing left in my existence 
but the deep, overwhelming sympathy of the 
medical man for a patient needing aid to call 
him back from death. 

He needed aid, indeed. His left arm was 
shot through ; his right leg shattered and badly 
mangled above the ankle ; his hip was torn 
by the fall of his horse, and life appeared fast 
ebbing. In his horse, by the way, as it fell 
under him, there were sixteen bullets. He 
had ridden right in on top of the 6th Conn, 
regiment, and our boys had given him what 
we called " a blizzard." 

" My poor man," I said, " you are wounded 
nearly unto death." 

" I feel it," he faintly replied. " I am Gene- 
ral Walker, of Beauregard's staff. Let me 
rest somewhere, and dictate some last words 
to my Wife and Commander." 

Where was my hatred now.^^ Where the 
fierce thirst of retribution that should have 



14 The Prison Life 

looked on this unfortunate's agony as a just 
judgment ? 

Giving him some brandy from a pocket- 
flask, I told the corporal in charge to carry 
him to my own tent, next General Gillmore's 
head-quarters at Hatcher's House ; and hastily 
scribbling a line to my hospital steward, 
" Take charge — will be with you soon," I re- 
mounted, and -galloped off to the sickening 
scenes always presented In a field hospital 
after a severe engagement. 

It was midnight, or some little later, before 
my duties to the hundreds of our boys would 
allow me to visit the sufferer in my tent. His 
case needed immediate amputation of the 
lower leg, and there was no sufficient light 
for performing the operation. 

" Tear down that smoke-house and kindle 
a big bonfire," was my order. " We must get 
light somehow, and quickly, or this man will 
die. He is seven-eighths on his way to death 
already." 

Never before had I been so painfully anx- 
ious. The feeling arose, no doubt, from an 



of yefferson Davis. 15 

instinct of conscience punishing my unpro- 
fessional thoughts — or half thoughts — when 
first halting beside his litter. The man had 
to be saved, or an unhappy recollection would 
haunt my life. No appliance that care or 
skill could furnish must be wanting. It had 
been against Beauregard all day that my 
anger had been specially kindled. I recalled 
our first defeat at Bull Run. His memorable 
" beauty and booty" proclamation. Was I 
always to witness defeat when opposed to this 
enemy 1 And it was against Beauregard and 
all belonging to him, that day, while the con- 
test lasted, that the Imprecations of my soul, 
if not uttered, had been most vehemently felt. 

But here now was a military part of Beau- 
regard — one of his eyes or arms — over whom 
I yearned as if with a brother's sympathy. 
My business was to heal the wounded, not to 
wound. By what right had I indulged the 
vengeful thoughts which filled my breast 
when first meeting on the road this shattered 
human wreck ? 

The bonfire was soon blazing, and before 



1 6 The Priso'n Life 

the operation commenced — as a happy result 
could scarce be hoped — I procured an amanu- 
ensis for General Walker, to whom he hur- 
riedly dictated two letters. They were fare- 
wells to his Wife and General Beauregard. 
Will the loyal world think worse of me, if I 
confess, that while hearing the few feeble 
whispers in which this wounded rebel commu- 
nicated to a strange soldier of the hostile 
force what he expected to be his last words 
on earth — his last messages to the Commander 
he reverenced, and the Wife he was to see no 
more — I found an unusual moisture making 
my sight uncertain } 

General Walker, however, was not destined 
to die. By the flickering light of the bonfire, 
and with the aid of Surgeons Janeway and 
Buzelle, the amputation was successfully per- 
formed, and his other wounds properly treated. 
He remained at once my guest and patient 
until sufficiently restored for safe transfer to 
the General Hospital at Fortress Monroe, and 
is now hopping around the earth somewhere, 
blythe and hearty on the leg that is left him ; 



of Jefferson Davis. 1 7 

perfectly willing to be " reconstructed," I 
should imagine, in more senses than one; nor 
any the less likely in future to make a loyal 
citizen, from such recollections as he may yet 
preserve of the bonfire and the tent, the 
amanuensis and the attending doctors of that 
midnight scene. 

This is the material part of my preface, and 
contains the only apology I shall offer in case 
any over-sensitively loyal readers may feel, or 
affect to feel, shocked on finding in the follow- 
ing pages some record of the imprisonment 
of Jefferson Davis, not written to gloat over 
the misfortunes of a fallen enemy — certainly 
not aiming to palliate his political or other 
errors ; but to depict so much of him as was 
revealed to the Writer during a medical attend- 
ance of many months while Mn Da^is lay a 
prisoner in Fortress Monroe. Should any 
such objectors be found, the Writer believes 
himself safe in predicting that they will be 
drawn pretty exclusively from that loyal class 
who were non-belligerent, except in the con- 
tracting line, and strictly non-combatant, save 



1 8 The Prison Life 

for higher percentages of profit, during the 
recent contest for the Union. 



For the rest, the following pages have been 
prepared from a conscientious conviction of 
duty, under the advice of eminent and re- 
spected friends, and with the sanction of many- 
gentlemen in our public life, who are not 
more exalted by station than by loyalty, inteU 
ligence, and moral worth. 

The book aims to introduce no discussion 
of any political questions connected with the 
late rebellion ; nor to be a plea influencing 
public judgment, either for or against, the 
gentleman who was for so many months the 
Author's patient. It will report him as he was 
seen during a protracted and confidential 
medicaj attendance, extenuating nothing of 
public interest, and setting down naught in 
malice. 

Of course, the relations of physician and 
patient have a sacredness of confidence which 
the Writer would be the last to violate ; and 
all such restrictions, in this volume, will be 



of Jefferson Davis. 19 

found rigidly observed. No knowledge gained 
during such relationship that might injure 
Mr. Davis if published, could properly 01 
without flagrant infidelity, be given to th«> 
world by his medical attendant ; and it is from 
a sincere conviction that the reverse must 
prove the fact, and from a sincere personal 
sympathy and respect for the subject of this 
memoir, that the present volume has been 
undertaken. 

It may here be proper to remark — lest par- 
tisan malice should attempt from interested 
motives to distort the Writer's position — that 
he has been through all the years of his 
thinking life an earnest and active opponent 
of slavery, and of all the other cardinal doc- 
trines on which the leaders of the late Rebel- 
lion claimed to base their action. He was 
a member of the Republican party from its 
birth down to the present day — an uncom- 
promising supporter of the Union ; and it is 
from his deep conviction that the Union can 
best be reconstructed, and its harmony of 
relationship restored, by pursuing a moderate 



20 The Prison Life 

policy and seeking to understand, in their 
present frame of mind, what are the views 
of the men who were recently our leading 
enemies, that he would now beg the earnest 
attention of all classes in the Country to such 
portions of this volume as shadow forth the 
opinions of Mr. Davis in regard to the future 
of the South. 



of Jefferson Davis. 2 i 



CHAPTER II. 

Fo7^tress Mo7iroe. — The Ceremonial of delizer- 
ing Mr, Davis into Ctcstody. — His first 
Day in the Casemate. 

Fortress Monroe is too well known to 
need any description in these pages. It is 
the most powerful regular fortification on the 
Continent; and, with its subordinate works 
is the grim Cerberus guarding the approach 
by water to our National Capital. It has wit- 
nessed the initial movements of many most 
interesting chapters in the recent war, though 
itself never within reach of hostile guns, 
save when the Merrimac made its brief raid 
upon our fleet in Hampton Roads — the raid 
so notably checked by Captain Worden in 
his little Monitor. 

Either from it, or past it from Annapolis, 
had sailed the chief expeditions, marine and 



2 2 The Priso7i Life 

military, of the Southern coast. Beneath its 
ramparts the transports of McClellan's army 
had made brief rendezvous when hastening 
to the campaign of the Peninsula ; and here 
again they had to pass, when returning with 
diminished ranks and soiled plumage to save 
the National Capital after General Pope's dis- 
aster. It witnessed the sailing of Sherman's 
Port Royal expedition, to which the writer 
had the honor to belong ; the expeditions of 
Burnside, Butler, Banks, and all the other 
joint military and naval movements which 
thundered for three years along the coast, 
from Cape Hatteras to Sabine Pass. Far- 
ragut, Du Pont and Porter stepped ashore 
on its hospitable beach when returning from 
their most famous exploits. 

Of a truth, Fortress Monroe, though not 
properly in the war, was of the war — a ren- 
dezvous for our greatest naval, military and 
civil chiefs in some of their greatest mo- 
ments ; nor will its least interesting reminis- 
cence to the future tourist be this which 
records, that in one of its granite casemates, 



of Jefferson Davis, 23 

and looking out through the bars of a grated 
embrasure on the Empire he had lost, lay for 
many months In solitary confinement, and 
awaiting trial, the defeated Chief of the might- 
iest rebellion which this earth has yet wit- 
nessed ; or, at least, the vastest in extent and 
the most formidable in its resources, of which 
history gives any clear and credible record. 

And never before, indeed, did the old fort 
witness such excitement, though partially sup- 
pressed and held in check by military disci- 
pline and the respect due to a fallen enemy, 
as on the 19th day of May, 1865, when the / 
propeller William P. Clyde dropped anchor 
in Hampton Roads, and the news spread on 
shore — first In eager, questioning whispers, 
then in the full assurance of conviction — that 
she had on board as prisoners Jefferson 
Davis, late President of the late Confederacy 
and his family; Alexander H. Stephens, Vice- 
President; John H. Reagan, late Postmaster- 
General ; Clement C. Clay, and several more 
State prisoners belonging to his now scat- 
tered and ruined house. 



24 The Prison Lifa 

" What will they do with him ? " " When 
will they bring him ashore ? " " Guess they'll 
take him right on to Washington and hang 
him by Military Commission ? " " Guess you're 
a jackass ; they can't hang him, unless they 
hang all." "Jackass yourself; the papers say 
he was partner with the assassins in killing 
Lincoln." " Who are the other chaps with 
him } " " Will they keep him in the w^oman's 
toggery he had on when caught. f^" "Guess 
there's no truth in that." " It's just as true as 
preaching — all the papers say so." " They'll 
hang Clem. Clay sure." This was something 
of the conversational buzz I had to pass 
through, w^hile hastening down from my 
quarters inside the fort, to get an early view 
of the little steamer, which, with her impri- 
soned freight, was the centre of attention. 

For the next three days these speculations 
continued, colloquially and in the papers ; but 
meantime, and for some days previously, pre- 
parations had been going on within the fort, 
under the direction of Colonel Brewerton of 
the Engineers, which gave evidence to the 



of Jefferson Davis. 25 

initiated that the State prisoners on board 
the propeller in the offing would soon be 
transferred — at least some of them, and for 
the present — to securer quarters. Black- 
smiths and carpenters were busily at work 
fitting up casemates number two and four in 
first front, and near the postern, for the recep- 
tion of prisoners. They were being parti- 
tioned off into regular cells by busy brick- 
layers ; heavy iron bars were placed across 
the external embrasures, and windows open- 
ing on the interior; and the cells intended 
for the prisoners were partitioned off into 
two apartments, that next the embrasure be- 
ing intended for the captives, while the room 
or cell opening on the interior of the fort 
was for his guard. 

" And it has come to this," was my reflec- 
tion, as I stood with folded hands first con- 
templating these arrangements. " But a few 
months ago, the man for whose reception 
these preparations are being made, was the 
acknowledged ruler of many millions of 
American citizens. He had armies at his 



26 The Prison Life 

command ; cabinet officers ; a staff of devoted 
adherents ; and ambassadors, though not offi- 
cially recognised, at all the courts of Europe. 
Nearly a million of lives — by battle, disease, 
and starvation — have been sacrificed for, and 
against, the cause of which he was the chosen 
representative. And it has come to this with 
him!" • Aye, and was soon to come to worse 
But this is anticipating. 

On the morning of the 21st of May some 
of the minor State prisoners on board the 
Clyde — the rebel General Wheeler and his 
staff — were placed on board the gunboat 
Maumee, which then steamed for Fort War- 
ren in Boston harbor; while Alexander H. 
Stephens, ex-Postmaster Reagan, and some 
others, were soon after transferred on board 
the gunboat Tuscarora^ which immediately 
started off to Fort Delaware, as was pre- 
sumed. Intense excitement, on shore and 
in the neighboring vessels, accompanied all 
these changes ; but Major-General Halleck, 
who had come down some days before to 
superintend the arrangements, would make 



of Jefferson Davis, 27 

no sign, and speculation consequently ran 
higher and higher every moment as to 
whether the chief prisoner of all was des- 
tined to remain at the fort, or be transferred 
elsewhere in custody without halting. 

At last, on the afternoon of the 2 2d, all 
doubts were set at rest by the arrival of 
Major-General Miles in a special steamer 
from Baltimore, this officer being now as- 
signed to the command of the fort, relieving 
Colonel Roberts ; and simultaneously there- 
with, from the posting of chains of sentinels 
and guards to keep back the crowd along 
the Engineer's Landing, and from thence 
along the route to the Water Battery Pos- 
tern, it became clear that the important pri- 
soner was about being landed, and that his 
•route would lie in this direction. 

The parting between Mr. Davis, his wife, 
four children, and the other members of his 
family and household who were on board 
the Clyde, was extremely affecting, as I have 
been told, by ofificers who were present — the 
ladies sobbing' passionately as the chief pris- 



28 The Frisdn Life 

oners — Messrs. Clay and Davis — were handed 
over the ship's side and into the boat, which 
was to convey them, under guard, to their 
unknown fate. 

The procession into the fort was simple 
though momentous, and was under the im- 
mediate inspection of Major-General Halleck 
and the Hon. Charles A. Dana, then As- 
sistant Secretary of War; Colonel Prich- 
ard, of the Michigan cavalry, who immedi- 
ately effected the capture, being the officer in 
command of the guard from the vessel to 
the fort. First came Major-General Miles 
holding the arm of Mr. Davis, who was 
dressed in a suit of plain Confederate grey, 
with a grey slouched hat — always thin, and 
now looking much wasted and very haggard. 
Immediately after these came Colonel Prich- 
ard accompanying Mr. Clay, with a guard of 
soldiers in their rear. Thus they passed 
through files of men in blue from the Engi- 
neer s Landing to the Water Battery Pos- 
tern ; and on arriving at the casemate which 
had been fitted up into cells for their incarce- 



of yclferson Davis. 29 

ration, Mr. Davis was shown into casemate 
No. 2 and Cla}^ into No. 4, guards of soldiers 
being stationed in the cells numbered i, 3, 
and 5, upon each side of them. They en- 
tered ; the heavy doors clanged behind them, 
and in that clang was rung the final knell of 
the terrible, but now extinct, rebellion. Here, 
indeed, is a fall, my countrymen. Anotlier 
and most striking illustration of the muta- 
bility of human greatness. Let me here 
give a picture of the earliest scene in the 
cell of Mr. Davis, as related immediately 
after its occurrence by one who was a pas- 
sive actor therein, my own connection with 
Mr. Davis not commencing until two days 
after (May the 24th), when I was first de- 
tailed by Major-General Miles as his attend- 
ing physician. 

Being ushered into his inner cell by Gen- 
eral Miles, and the two doors leading there- 
into from the guard-room being fastened, Mr. 
Davis, after surveying the premises for some 
moments, and looking out through the em- 
brasure with such thoughts passing over his 



30 The Pj^ison Life 

lined and expressive face as may be imagined, 
suddenly seated himself in a chair, placing 
both hands on his knees, and asked one of 
the soldiers pacing up and down within his 
cell this significant question : " Which way 
does the embrasure face?" 

The soldier was silent. 

Mr. Davis, raising his voice a little, re- 
peated the inquiry. 

But again dead silence, or only the mea- 
sured footfalls of the two pacing sentries with- 
in, and the fainter echoes of the four without. 

Addressing the other soldier, as if the first 
had been deaf and had not heard him, the 
prisoner again repeated his inquiry. 

But the second soldier remained silent as 
the first, a slight twitching of his eyes only 
intimating that he had heard the question, but 
was forbidden to speak. 

" Well," said Mr. Davis, throwing his hands 
up and breaking into a bitter laugh, " I wish 
my men could have been taught your disci- 
pline!" and then, rising from his chair, he 
commenced pacing back and forth before the 



of ycfferson Davis. 31 

embrasure, now looking at the silent sentry 
across the moat, and anon at the two silently 
pacing soldiers who were his companions in 
the casemate. 

What caused his bitter laugh — for even in 
his best days his temper was of the saturnine 
and atrabilious type, seldom capable of being 
moved beyond a smile? * Was he thinking of 
those days under President Pierce, in which 
on his approach the cannon of the fortress 
thundered their hoarse salute to the all-power- 
ful Secretary of War, the fort's gates leaping 
open, its soldiers presenting arms, and tlie 
whole phice under his command ?. Or those 
later days under Mr. Buchanan when, as the 
most powerful member of the Military Com- 
mittee of the Senate, similar honors were 
paid on his arrival at every national work — 
even during those final moments when he 
was plotting " to secure peace" by placing in 
command of all our forts and armories, such 
officers as he thought might be relied upon 
to " go with the South if the worst came } " 

And was not his question significant: — 



32 The Prison Life 

" Which way does this embrasure face ? 
Was it north, south, east, or west ? In the 
hurry and agitation of being conducted in, he 
Iiad lost his reckoning of the compass, though 
\vell acquainted with the locaHties ; and his 
first question was in effect : " Does my vision 
in its reach go southward to the empire I 
have lost, or North to the loyal enemies who 
have subdued my people ? " — for it is always 
as " his people" that Mr. Davis refers to the 
Southern States. 

His sole reading-matter a Bible and prayer- 
book, his only companions those two silent 
guards, and his only food the ordinary rations 
of bread and beef served out to the soldiers 
of the garrison — thus passed the first day and 
night of the ex-President's confinement. 



of Jefferson Davis. _ 33 



CHAPTER III, 

Placing Mr, Davis in Irons. — His Protest 
and his Struggles. — My First Visit to the 
Prisoner, 

On the morning of the 23d of May, a yet 
bitterer trial was in store for the proud spirit 
— a trial severer, probably, than has ever in 
modern times been inflicted upon any one 
who had enjoyed such eminence. This morn- 
ing Jefferson Davis was shackled. 

It was while all the swarming camps of 
the armies of the Potomac, the Tennessee 
and Georgia — over two hundred thousand 
bronzed and laurelled veterans — were pre- 
paring for the Grand Review of the next 
morning, in which, passing in endless succes- 
sion before the mansion of the President, the 
conquering military power of the nation was 

to lay down its arms at the feet of the Civi) 

2* 



34 The Prison Life 

Authority, that the following scene was en- 
acted at Fort Monroe : 

Captain Jerome E. Titlow, of the 3d Penn- 
sylvania Artillery, entered the prisoner's cell, 
followed by the blacksmith of the fort and his 
assistant, the latter carrying in his hands some 
heavy and harshly-rattling shackles. As they 
entered, Mr. Davis was reclining on his bed, 
feverish and weary after a sleepless night, the 
food placed near to him the preceding day 
still lying untouched on its tin plate near his 
bedside. 

" Well 1 " said Mr. Davis as they entered, 
slightly raising his head. 

" I have an unpleasant duty to perform. 
Sir," said Captain Titlow ; and as he spoke, 
the senior blacksmith took the shackles from 
his assistant. 

Davis leaped instantly from his recumbent 
attitude, a flush passing over his face for a 
moment, and then his countenance growing 
livid and rigid as death. 

He gasped for breath, clutching his throat 
with the thin fingers of his right hand, and 



of yefferson Davis, 35 

then recovering himself slowly, while his 
wasted figure towered up to its full height — 
now appearing to swell with indignation and 
then to shrink with terror, as he glanced from 
the captain's face to the shackles — he said 
slowly and with a laboring chest : 

" My God ! You cannot have been sent to 
iron me ?" 

"'Such are my orders, Sir," replied the offi- 
cer, beckoning the blacksmith to approach, 
who stepped forward, unlocking the padlock 
and preparing the fetters to do their office. 
These fetters were of heavy iron, probably 
five-eighths of an inch in thickness, and con- 
nected together by a chain of like weight. I 
believe they are now in the possession of 
Major-General Miles, and will form an inter- 
esting relic. 

" This is too monstrous," groaned the pri- 
soner, glaring hurriedly round the room, as if 
for some weapon, or means of self-destruction. 
" I demand, Captain, that you let me see the 
commanding officer. Can he pretend that 
such shackles are required to secure the safe 



36 The Prison Life 

custody of a weak old man, so guarded and 
in such a fort as this ? " 

" It could serve no purpose," replied Cap- 
tain Titlow ; " his orders are from Washing 
ton, as mine are from him." 

" But , he can telegraph," interposed Mr 
Davis, eagerly ; " there must be some mis- 
take. No such outrage as you threaten me 
* with, is on record in the history of nations. 
Beg him to telegraph, and delay until he 
answers." 

" My orders are peremptory," said the offi- 
cer, " and admit of no delay. For your ow^n 
sake, let me advise you to submit with 
patience. As a soldier, Mr. Davis, you 
know I must execute orders." 

" These are not orders for a soldier," 
shouted the prisoner, losing all control of 
himself. " They are orders for a jailor — for 
' a hangman, which no soldier wearing a 
sword should accept! * I tell you the world 
will ring with this disgrace. The war js 
over ; the South is conquered ; I have no 
longer any country but America, and it is 



of Jeffersofi Davis, 37 

for the lionor of America, as for my own 
honor and Hfe, that I plead against this degra- 
dation. Kill me! kill me!" he cried, passion- 
ately, throwing his arms wide open and expos- 
ing his breast, " rather than inflict on me, 
and on my People through me, this insult 
worse than death." 

" Do your duty, blacksmith," said the offi- 
cer, walking towards the embrasure as if not 
caring to witness the performance. " It only 
gives increased pain on all sides to protract 
this interview." 

At these words the blacksmith advanced 
with the shackles, and seeing that the prisoner 
had one foot upon the chair near his bedside, 
his right hand resting on the back of it, the 
brawny mechanic made an attempt to slip one 
of the shackles over the ankle so raised ; but, 
as if with the vehemence and strength which 
frenzy can impart, even to the weakest invalid, 
Mr. Davis suddenly seized his assailant and 
hurled him half-way across the room. 

On this Captain Titlow turned, and seeing 
that Davis had backed against the wall for 



38 The PiHson Life 

further resistance, began to remonstrate, point- 
ing out in brief, clear language, that this course 
was madness, and that orders must be en- 
forced at any cost. " Why compel me," he 
said, " to add the further indignity of personal 
violence to the necessity of your being 
ironed ? " 

" I am a prisoner of war," fiercely retorted 
Davis ; " I have been a soldier in the armies 
of America, and know how to die. Only kill 
me, and my last breath shall be a blessing on 
your head. But while I have life and strength 
to resist, for myself and for my people, this 
thing shall not be done." 

Hereupon Captain Titlow called in a ser- 
geant and file of soldiers from the next room, 
and the sergeant advanced to seize the pri- 
soner. Immediately Mr. Davis flew on him, 
seized his musket and attempted to wrench it 
from his grasp. 

Of course such a scene could have but one 
issue. There was a short, passionate scuffle. 
In a moment Davis was flung upon his 
bed, and before his four powerful assailants 



of yefferson Davis 39 

removed their hands from him, the blacksmith 
and his assistant had done their work — one 
securing the rivet on the right ankle, while 
the other turned the key in the padlock on 
the left. 

This done, Mr. Davis lay for a moment as 
if in stupor. Then slowly raising himself 
and turning round, he dropped his shackled 
feet to the floor. The harsh clank of the 
striking chain seems first to have recalled him 
to his situation, and dropping his face into 
his hands, he burst into a passionate flood of 
sobbing, rocking to and fro, and muttering at 
brief intervals : " Oh, the sliame, the shame ! " 

It may here be stated, though out of its 
due order — that we may get rid in haste of an 
unpleasant subject — that Mr. Davis some two 
months later, when frequent visits had made 
him more free of converse, gave me a curious 
explanation of the last feature in this incident. 

He had been speaking of suicide, and de- 
nouncing it as the worst form of cowardice 
and foil}'. " Life is not like a commission 
that we can resign when disgusted with the 



40 -The Prison Life 

service. Taking it by your own hand is a 
confession of judgment to all that your worst 
enemies can allege. It has often flashed 
across me as a tempting remedy for neuralgic 
torture ; but thank God ! I never sought my 
own death but once, and then when com- 
pletely frenzied and not master of my actions. 
When they came to iron me that day, as a last 
resource of desperation, I seized a soldier's 
musket and attempted to wrench it from his 
grasp, hoping that in the scuffle and surprise, 
some one of his comrades w^ould shoot or 
bayonet me." 

What has preceded this, with the exception 
of the preceding paragraph and of things I 
saw — such as the cell, procession, etc. — has 
been based on the evidence of others who 
came fresh from the scenes they pictured. I 
now reach the commencement of my persona] 
relations with the prisoner, and for all that 
follows am willing to be held responsible. 

On the morning of May 24th, I was sent 
for about half-past 8 a.m., by Major-General 
Mi/es ; was told that State-prisoner Davis 



of yefferson Davis. 41 

complained of being ill, and that I had been 
assigned as his medical attendant. 

Calling upon the prisoner — the first time 1 
liad ever seen him closely — he presented a 
\ ery miserable and afflicting aspect. Stretched 
upon his pallet and very much emaciated, Mr. 
Davis appeared a mere fascine of raw and 
tremulous nerves — his eyes restless and fe- 
vered, his head continually shifting from side 
to side for a cool spot on the pillow, and his 
case clearly one in which intense cerebral ex- 
citement was the first thing needing attention. 
He was extremely despondent, his pulse full 
and at ninety, tongue thickly coated, extremi- 
ties cold, and his head troubled with a long- 
established neuralgic disorder. Complained 
of his thin camp mattress and pillow stuffed 
with hair, adding, that he was so emaciated 
that his skin chafed easily against the slats ; 
and, as these complaints were well founded, I 
ordered an additional hospital mattress and 
softer pillow, for which he thanked me cour- 
teously. 

" But I fear," he said, as, having prescribed, 



42 The Prison Life 

I was about taking my leave, accompanied by 
Captain Evans, 3d Pennsylvania Artillery, 
who was officer of the day ; " I fear. Doctor, 
you will have a troublesome and unsatisfactory 
patient. One whose case can reflect on you 
little credit. There are circumstances at work 
outside your art to counteract your art ; and I 
suppose there must be a conflict between your 
feelings as a soldier of the Union and your 
duties as a healer of the sick." 

This last was said with a faint smile, and I 
tried to cheer him, assuring him, if he would 
only keep quiet and endeavor to get some 
rest and sleep, which my prescription was 
mainly addressed to obtain, that he would be 
well in a few days. For the rest, of course a 
physician could have no feelings nor recog- 
nise any duties but towards his patient. 

Mr. Davis turned to the officer of the day, 
and demanded whether he had been shackled 
by special order of the Secretary of War, or 
whether General 'Miles had considered this 
violent course essential to his safe -keeping ? 
The Captxin replied that he knew nothing 



of Jefferson Davis, 43 

of the matter ; and so our first interview 
ended. 

On quitting Mr. Davis, at once wrote to 
Major Church, Assistant Adjutant-General, 
advising that the prisoner be allowed tobacco 
— to the want of which, after a lifetime of 
use, he had referred as one of the probable 
partial causes of his illness — though not com- 
plainingly, nor with any request that it be 
given. This recommendation was approved 
in the course of the day; and on calling in 
the evening brought tobacco with me, and Mr. 
Davis filled his pipe, which was the sole article 
he had carried with him from the Clyde, ex- 
cept the clothes he then wore. 

" This is a noble medicine," he said, with 
something as near a smile as was possible for 
his haggard and shrunken features. " I hardly 
expected it ; did not ask for it, though the 
deprivation has been severe. During my con- 
finement here I shall ask for nothing." 

He was now much calmer, feverish symp- 
toms steadily decreasing, pulse already down 
to seventy-five, his brain less excitable, and nis 



44 ^-^'^ Prison Life 

mind becoming more resigned to his condi- 
tion. Complained that the foot-falls of the 
two sentries within his chamber made it diffi- 
cult for him to collect his thoughts ; but 
r.dded cheerfully that, with this — touching his 
pipe — he hoped to become tranquil. 

This pipe, by the way, was a large and 
handsome one, made of meerschaum, with an 
amber mouth-piece, showing by its color that 
it had seen " active service" for some time — as 
indeed w^as the case, having been his com- 
panion during the stormiest years of his late 
titular Presidency. It is now in the Writer's 
possession, having been given to him by Mr. 
Davis, and its acceptance insisted upon as the 
only thing he had left to offer. 



of yefferson Davis, 45 



CHAPTER IV. 

Conversation with Mr. Davis on 7nany Points. 
— The Removal of his Shackles demanded 
as a Medical Necessity. 

Morning of 25th May. My patient much 
easier and better. Had slept a little, and 
thanked me for the additional mattress. 

" I have a poor, frail body," he said ; " and 
though in my youth and manhood, while 
soldiering, I have done some rough camping 
and campaigning, there was flesh then to 
cover my nerves and bones ; and that makes 
an important difference." 

He then spoke of his predisposition to 
bilious fever at this period of the year, stating 
that it usually began with a slight chill, then 
ran into a remittent condition. Had also suf- 
fered much from neuralgia, by which the sight 
of one eye had been destroyed ; and had been 



4-6 The Prison Life 

a victim to what he called " the American 
malady," dyspepsia, ever since quitting the 
active, open-air life of the army. 

Having ordered him a preparation of Cali- 
saya bark after each meal to assist digestion 
Mr. Davis spoke familiarly of all the various 
preparations of this medicine ; then digressed 
into some reminiscence of a conversation he 
once had with an eminent English physician 
in regard to anti-periodics. 

He took the ground, said Mr. Davis, that 
Peruvian bark in its various forms was the 
only reliable therapeutic agent of this kind — 
and it may be so with the practice in England. 
Here, however (I told him), we have a number 
perfectly reliable, such as Salicine, from the 
willow, a preparation of arsenic (in solution), 
and so forth. 

He appeared anxious to know what agents 
could be used for adulterating quinine and 
the other preparations of bark, for that the}; 
are grossly adulterated he knew. Taking all 
the risks of running the blockade, these pre- 
parations, or preparations purporting to be 



of yefferson Davis. 47 

such, had been sold at Wilmington and 
Charleston during the war, at prices in gold for 
which the genuine articles could scarcely have 
been procured in London. They were the 
best his people could get, however, and very 
thankful they were when they could be had. 
Then spoke of the crime of adulterating me- 
dicines as heinous in the extreme, and re- 
ferred to a speech he had made on the subject 
in the Senate of the United Sates, asking 
legislative interference, and that no adulterat- 
ed drugs should be allowed to pass the Cus- 
tom-House. His action had been based, 
partly on his own acquaintance with the facts, 
but more especially on a report from an emi- 
nent chemist in New York city, setting forth 
the magnitude of the abuse, with tabular 
statements. 

" There was one restriction of the war," he 
went on to say, " imposed by the overwhelm- 
ing superiority of your navy, which I do not 
believe an enlightened and Christian civiliza- 
tion can approve. I refer to that making 
medicines contraband of war. This inflicted 



48 The Prison Life 

much undeserved suffering on women and 
children and the whole non-combatant class, ' 
while comparatively but little affecting the \ 
combatants. For our soldiers we had to pro- | 
cure the requisite medicines, at whatever cost | 
or sacrifice ; so that the privation fell chiefly • 
upon those who were not engaged in the war, j 
save as helpless spectators. I am far from I 
saying this restriction was not justified by the 
laws of war, as heretofore acknowledged and 
practised ; but whenever these laws come to j 
be revised in a spirit more harmonizing with ] 
the advanced intellis^ence of our times, some ^ 
friend of humanity should plead that cargoes j 
duly vouched as only containing medicines j 
should not be liable to stoppage." 

Happening to notice that his coffee stood j 
cold and apparently untasted beside his bed 
in its tin cup, I remarked that here was a \ 
contradiction of the assertion implied in the 
old army question, " Who ever saw cold cof- 1 
fee in a tin cup } " referring to the eagerness 
with which soldiers of all classes, when cam- 
paigning, seek for and use this beverage. 

i 



of yefferson Davis, 49 

" I cannot drink it," he remarked, " though 
fond of coffee all my life. It is the poorest 
article of the sort I have ever tasted ; and if 
your government pays for such stuff as cof- 
fee, the purchasing quartermaster must be 
getting rich. It surprises me, too, for I 
thought your soldiers must have the best — 
many of my Generals complaining of the 
difficulties they encountered in seeking to 
prevent our people from making volunteer 
"truces with your soldiers whenever the lines 
ran near each other, for the purpose of ex- 
changing the tobacco we had in abundance 
against your coffee and sugar." 

Replied that the same difficulty had been 
felt on our side, endangering discipline and 
calling for severe ^ measures of repression. 
The temptation to obtain tobacco was uncon- 
trollable. One of our lads would pop his 
head up from his rifle-pit and cry : " Hey, 
Johnny, any tobacco over your way?" to 
which the reply would instantly come, " Yes, 
Yank, rafts of it. How is it with you on the 
coffee question?" A satisfactory reply being 



50 The Prison Life 

given, the whisper would run along each line, 
" Cease firing, truce for coffee and tobacco ; " 
and in another moment scores of the combat- 
ants, on either side, would be scrambling 
over their respective earthworks, and meet 
ing on the debatable land between, for com- 
mercial dicker and barter on true Yankee 
style. 

This picture seemed to amuse the patient. 
His spirits were evidently improving. Told 
him to spend as little time in bed as he 
could ; that exercise was the best medicine 
for dyspeptic patients. To this he answered 
by uncovering the blankets from his feet and 
showinof me his shackled ankles. 

" It is impossible for me, Doctor ; I cannot 
even stand erect. These shackles are very 
heavy ; I know not, with the chain, how 
many pounds. If I try to move they trip 
me, and have already abraded broad patches 
of skin from the parts they touch. Can you 
devise no means to pad or cushion them, so 
that when I try to drag them along they may 
not chafe me so intolerably t My limbs have 



of yefferson Davis. 5 1 

so little flesh on them, and that so weak, as 
to be easily lacerated." 

At sight of this I turned away, promising 
to see what could be done, as exercise was 
the chief medical necessity in his case ; and 
at this moment the first thrill of sympathy 
for my patient was experienced. 

That afternoon, at an interview sought with 
Major-General Miles, my opinion was given 
that the physical condition of State-prisoner 
Davis required the removal of his shackles, 
until such time as his health should be estab 
lished on some firmer basis. Exercise he ab- 
solutely needed, and also some alleviation of 
his abnormal nervous excitement. No drugs 
could aid a digestion naturally weak and so 
impaired, without exercise ; nor could any- 
thing in the pharmacopoeia quiet nerves so 
over-wrought and shattered, while the con- 
tinual irritation of the fetters was counter- 
poising whatever medicines might be given. 

" You believe it, then, a medical necessity ? ' 
queried General Miles. 

" I do most earnestly." 



52 The Prison Life 

" Then I will give the matter attention ;" and 
at this point for the present the affair ended. 

May 2 6//2.— Called with the Officer of 
the Day, Captain James B. King, at i p.m. 
Found Mr. Davis in bed, complaining of in- 
tense debility, but could not point to any par- 
ticular complaint. The pain in his head had 
left him last night, but had been brought back 
this forenoon and aggravated by the noise of 
mechanics employed in taking down the 
wooden doors between his cell and the ex- 
terior guard-room, and replacing these with 
Iron gratings, so that he could at all times be 
seen by the sentries in the outside room, as 
well as by the two " silent friends," who were 
the unspeaking companions of his solitude. 

Noticed that the prisoner's dinner lay un- 
touched on its tin plate near his bedside, his 
meals being brought in by a silent soldier, 
who placed food on its table and then with- 
drew. Had remarked before that he scarcely 
touched the food served to him, his appetite 
being feeble at best, and his digestion out of 
order. 



of yefferson Davis. 53 

Quitting him, called on General Miles, and 
recommended that I be allowed to place the 
prisoner on a diet corresponding with his con- 
dition, which required light and nutritious 
food. Consent was immediately given, and I 
had prepared and sent over from my quarters 
some tea and toast for his evening's meal. 

Calling about 7 p.m., found Mr. Davis 
greatly' improved, the tea and toast having 
given him, he said, new life. Though he 
had not complained of the fare, he was very 
thankful for the change. Remarked in reply 
that I had observed the food given was not 
fit for an invalid in his condition, and was 
happy to say permission had been given me 
to supply from my own table such diet as he 
might seem to need. On this he repeat- 
ed that I had an unequal and perplexing 
task. 

" As a soldier you could soon dispose of 
me," he said ; " but as a master of the healing 
art all your energies will be taxed ; and I 
sometimes hope — sometimes fear — in vain. 
You have in me a constitution completely 



54 The Prison Life 

shattered, and of course all its maladies ag- 
gravated by my present surroundings." 

He then commenced talking — and let me 
here say that I encouraged him in this, believ- 
ing conversation and some human sympathy 
the best medicines that could be given to one 
in his state — on the subject of the weather. 

How has the weather been — rough or fair } 
In this huge casemate, and unable to crawl to 
the embrasure, he could not tell whether the 
weather was rough or smooth, nor how the 
wind was blowing. 

" All my family are at sea, you are aware, 
on their way to Savannah ; and I know the 
dangers of going down the coast at this sea- 
son of the year too well to be without in- 
tense alarm. My wife and four children, 
with other relatives, are on board the Clyde, 
and these propellers roll dreadfully and are 
poor sea-boats in rough weather." 

He then explained with great clearness of 
detail, and evidently having studied the sub 
ject, why the dangers of going down the 
coast in rough weather were so much greater 



of Jefferson Davis. 55 

than coming north. Going down, ships had 
to hug the shore — often running dangerously 
near the treacherous horrors of Cape Hat- 
teras ; while in running north they stood out 
from land to catch the favoring gulf stream, 
to avoid which they had to run in shore as 
close as they could when steering south. 

He appeared intensely anxious on this 
subject,, recurring to it frequently and specu- 
lating on the probable position of the Clyde 
at this time. " Should she be lost," he re 
marked, " it will be ' all my pretty chickens 
and their dam at one fell swoop.' It will be 
the obliteration of my name and house." 

" Mrs. Davis, too," he continued, " has 
much to contend with. Her sister has been 
very ill, and her two nurses left her while 
here, and she could procure no others. My 
only consolation is, that some of my paroled 
people are on board, and soldiers make excel- 
lent nurses. Soldiers are fond of children. 
Perhaps the roughness of their camp-life 
makes the contrasted playfulness of infancy 
so pleasant. Charles of Sweden, Frederick 



56 The Prison Life 

the Great, and Napoleon, were illustrations 
of this peculiarity. The Duke of Welling- 
ton is the only eminent commander of whom 
no trait of the sort is recorded." 

Talking of propellers, and how badly they 
rolled in a rough sea, I spoke of one called 
the Burnside, formerly stationed at Port 
Royal, of which the common remark was, 
that in every three rolls she went clean 
round. 

" Once," I added, " when her Captain was 
asked what was her draught of water, he 
replied that he did not know to an inch the 
height of her smoke-stack, but it was from 
the top of that to her keel." 

This, and other anecdotes, amused the 
patient for some quarter of an hour; and 
whatever could give his mind a moment's 
repose was in the line of his cure. 

As I was leaving, he asked had I been 
able to do nothing to pad or cushion his 
shackles } He could take no exercise, or 
but the feeblest, and with great pain, while 
they were on. 



of yeffersoii Davis, 57 

To this gave an evasive answer, not know- 
ing what might be the action of General 
Miles, and fearing to excite false hopes. No 
such half-way measures as padding would 
suffice to meet the necessities of his case ; 
while their adoption, * or suggestion, might 
defer the broader remedy that was needed. 
On leaving, he requested me in the morning 
to note how the wind blew, and the pros- 
pects of the weather, before paying him 
my visit. Until he heard of his family's 
arrival in Savannah he could know no peace. 



58 The Prison Life 



CHAPTER V. 

Conversations of some Interest. — The Shack' 
les Removed. — Mr. Davis on Various Sci- 
entific Subjects, 

May 27th. — Called in the morning with the 
Officer of the Day, Captain Titlow. Found 
Mr. Davis in bed, very weak and desponding. 
He had not slept. Had been kept awake by 
the heavy surging of the wind through the 
big trees on the other side of the moat. Ap- 
peared much relieved when I told him the 
breeze was nothing like a storm, though it 
blew north-easterly, which was favorable to 
the ship containing his family. 

He expressed great concern lest his wife 
should hear through newspapers of the scene 
in his cell when he was ironed. Would it be 
published, did I think 1 And on my remain- 
ing silent — for I knew it had been sent to the 



of yefferson Davis. 59 

newspapers on the afternoon of its transpiring 
— he interlaced his fingers across his eyes, and 
ejaculated : " Oh, my poor wife, my poor, 
poor girl ! How the heart-rending narrative 
will afflict her ! " 

He remained silent for some moments as I 
sat beside his bed ; and then continued, ex- 
tending his hand that I might feel his pulse : 

" I wish she could have been spared this 
knowledge. There was no necessity for the 
act. My physical condition rendered it obvi- 
ous that there could be no idea that fetters 
were needful to the security of my imprison- 
ment It was clear, therefore, that the object 
was to offer an indignity both to myself and 
the cause I represented — not the less sacred 
to me because covered with the pall of a 
military disaster. It was for this reason I re- 
sisted as a duty to my faith, to my country- 
men, and to myself It was for this reason 
I courted death from the muskets of the guard. 
The Officer of the Day prevented that result, 
and, indeed," — bowing to Captain Titlow — 
" behaved like a man of good feeling. But, 



6o The Prison Life 

my poor wife ! I can see the hideous an 
nouncement with its flaming capitals, and can- 
not but anticipate how much her pride and 
love will both be shocked. For myself I am 
resigned, and now only say, 'The Lord re 
prove them ! ' The physical inconvenience 
of these things I still feel (clanking his ankles 
together slightly under the bed-clothes), but 
their sense of humiliation is gone. Patriots 
in all ages, to whose memories shrines are 
now built, have suffered as bad or worse in- 
dignities." 

He thanked me for the breakfast that had 
been sent him, expressing the hope that I 
would not let my wife be put to too much 
trouble making broth and toast for one so 
helpless and utterly wretched. 

" I wish. Doctor," said he, " I could com- 
pensate you by getting well ; but my case is 
most unpromising. Your newspapers," he 
went on — this with a grim smile — " should 
pray for the success of your skill. If you 
fail, where will their extra editions be — their 
startling head-lines } My death would only 



of yefferson Davis. 6i 

give them food for one or two days at most ; 
while my trial — for I suppose I shall be given 
some kind of trial — would fatten for them a 
month's crop of lucrative excitement." 

Finding the conversation, or rather his 
monologue, running into a channel more likely 
to excite than soothe him — the latter beino^ the 
object for which I was always willing to listen 
during the fifteen or twenty minutes these 
interviews usually lasted while he was seri- 
ously ill — I now rose to take my leave, gently 
hinting that he should avoid such thoughts 
and topics as much as possible. 

He took my remark in a wrong sense, as 
if I had been hurt at his saying anything that 
might cast a reflection on the justice that 
would be dealt to him by my government, or 
upon the style of journalism in Northern 
newspapers. But I explained that nothing 
could be farther from my thoughts : that my 
counsel was purely medical, and to divert him 
from a theme that must re-arouse the cerebral 
excitement we were seeking to allay. 

" For the rest, Mr. Davis," I went on, " that 



62 The Prison Life 

Doctor should go to College again who is 
not ready to listen with interest and attention 
to whatever subject may be uppermost in his 
patient's mind, unless convinced that the 
mind's brooding upon it will do harm, not 
good. We need ventilation in the world of 
mind not less than in that of physics. Our 
thoughts need to go abroad in the minds of 
other men, and take their exercise in the sun- 
light and free air of language. The doctrine 
of confession in the Catholic Church is based 
on the soundest principles of moral and intel- 
lectual hygiene. It is throwing open the 
doors and windows of the soul, changing the 
atmosphere, and disinfecting every crevice of 
the mind of the foul vapors engendered by 
the close dampness and darkness of secresy. 
The physician who has not learned to act in 
this faith should re-commence his education." 
Called again at 8 p.m. same day. Mr. Davis 
still very weak, and had been troubled with 
several faint, not exactly fainting, spells, his 
pulse indicating extreme debility. He said 
th( nights were very tedious and haggard. 



of Jefferson Davis, 63 

During the day he could find emplo}ment 
reading (the Bible or prayer-book being sel- 
dom out of his hand while alone), but during 
the night his anxieties about his family re- 
turned ; and the footh-falls of the sentries in 
the room with him — their very breathing 
or coughing^ — continually called back his 
thoughts, when otherwise and for a moment 
more pleasantly wandering, to his present 
situation. He had watched the weather all 
day with intense interest; and had been cheer- 
ed to observe from the slant of the rain that 
the wind appeared to continue north-east, so 
that he hoped his family were by this time in 
Savannah. 

Then went on to say that he feared, after, 
he had been removed from the Clyde, his wife 
must have suffered the annoyance of having 
her trunks searched — an unnecessary act, it 
seemed to him, as, of course, if she had any- 
thing to conceal, she could have got rid of it 
on the passage up. 

On my remarking, to soothe him, that no 
such search was probable, he said it could 



64 The Frisoxi Life 

hardly be otherwise, as he had receiv ed a suit 
of heavy clothes from the propeller ; and Gen. 
Miles, when informing him of the fact, had 
mentioned that there were quite a number of 
suits there. 

" Now I had none with me but such as my 
wife placed in her own trunks when she left 
Richmond, so that her trunks have probably 
been opened ; and I suppose," he added with 
another grim smile, " that the other clothes to 
which Gen. Miles referred, are now on exhibi- 
tion or preserved as ' relics.' My only hope 
is, that in taking my wardrobe they did not 
also confiscate that of my wife and children; 
but I realize that we are like him of old who 
fell amongst a certain class of people and was 
succored by the good Samaritan." 

" And so, Doctor," he went on, " you think 
all the miserable details of my ironing have 
been placed before the public t It is not 
only for the hurt feelings of my wife and 
children, but for the honor of Americans- 
that I regret it. My efforts to conceal from 
my wife the knowledge of my sufferings are 



of Jefferson Davis. 65 

unavailing; and it were perhaps better that 
she should know the whole truth, as proba- 
bly less distressing to her than what may be 
the impressions of her fears. Should I write 
such a letter to her, however, she would 
never get it." 

Sunday, May 2%th, — At 11 a.m. this morn- 
ing was sitting on the porch in front of my 
quarters when Captain Frederick Korte, 3d 
Pennsylvania Artillery, who was Officer of the 
Day, passed towards the cell of the prisoner, 
followed by the blacksmith. This told the 
story, and sent a pleasant professional thrill 
of pride through my veins. It was a vindi- 
cation of my theory, that the healing art is 
next only in its sacredness and power to that 
of the healers of the soul — an instance of 
the doctrinal toga forming a shield for suffer- 
ing humanity, which none were too exalted 
or powerful to disregard. I hastily followed 
the party, but remained in the outer guard- 
room while the smith removed the shackles. 
Did not let Mr. Davis see me then, but 
retired, thinking it better the prisoner should 



66 The Prispn Life 

be left alone in the first moments of regain, 
ing so much of his personal freedom. 

Called again at 2 p.m. with the Officer of 
the Day. Immediately on entering, Mr. 
Davis rose from his seat, both hands ex- 
tended, and his eyes filled with tears. He 
was evidently about to say something, but 
checked himself; or was checked by a rush 
of emotions, and sat down upon his bed. 
That I was gratified by the change I will 
not deny — and let those in the North into 
whose souls the iron of Andersonville has 
entered, think twice before they condemn 
me. The war was over ; the prisons on 
both sides were empty. If by rigor to Davis 
we could have softened by a degree the suf- 
ferings of a single Union prisoner, I, for one, 
would have said let our retaliation be so terri- 
ble as to bring the South to justice. But 
now, no sufferings of his could recall the 
souls that had fled, or the bodies that were 
wasted and fever-stricken. It would not be 
retaliation to secure justice, but mere ignoble 
vindictiveness to further torture this unhappy 



of Jefferson Davis, 67 

and shattered man. Besides, as his medi- 
cal adviser, I could know him in no other 
capacity ; and it then remained to be proved 
— remains yet to be proved — that he was in 
any manner of volition or wish responsible 
for the horrors we deplore. Even Napoleon 
complained that Virion, and his other com- 
missaries of prisoners, stole the food and 
other stores furnished for their use ; and time 
must develop whether, and how far, Mr. 
Davis was responsible for the cruel treatment 
of our boys. 

Thus feeling, I congratulated him on the 
change, observing that my promise of his 
soon feeling better was being fulfilled ; and 
he must now take all the exercise that was 
possible for him, for on this his future health 
would depend. Captain Korte, too, joined 
in my congratulations very kindly, and spoke 
with the frank courtesy of a gentleman and 
soldier. 

In speaking of his present state of health, 
and the treatment he had formerly been 
under for the same symptoms, Mr. Davis 



68 The Prison Life 

referred very kindly, and in terms of admira- 
tion, to his former friend and medical attend- 
ant, Dr. Thomas Miller, of Washington. 
Also to Dr. Stone, of Washington, who had 
made a specialty of the eye and its diseases. 
From him he had received clearer ideas of 
the power of vision, and the adaptation of 
the eye to various distances and degrees of 
light, than from any other source. Referring 
to his own loss of sight in one eye from 
leucoma, or an ulceration of the cornea, he 
said he could discern light with it, but could 
not distinguish objects. 

Entering then into conversation upon 
optics and acoustics, Mr. Davis spoke on 
both subjects, but more especially the former, 
with great familiarity. Referring to the 
undulating waves by which both light and 
sound are conveyed, he remarked : 

" With what admirable perversity nature 
has avoided all straight lines and angles — the 
curve, or waving ' line of beauty,' first discov- 
ered to men by Hogarth, being the rule with 
her in every variety of production. In no 



of yefferson Davis. 69 

leaf, flower, tree, rock, animal, bird, fish or 
shell that nature has produced, can a straight 
line, angle, or two lines exactly parallel be 
found." 

Speaking of how greatly the powers of the 
sight may be increased by practice, Mr. Davis 
upheld the theory that the brain, too, was 
also enlarged in its capacities, both physically 
and intellectually, by continual labor. He 
pointed to the large brains of nearly all who 
have been eminent in pursuits involving 
mental labor, contending that as the labor 
of the tailor develops the muscles of the 
right thumb and fore-finger, those of the 
delver the muscles of the leg, and so forth, 
so the increased exercise of the brain in- 
creased its size. There was a fault in his 
parallel, he knew, or rather what appeared to 
be a fault — that we can establish no analogy 
between the mental and physical phases of 
existence. Still it was certain that labor 
enlarged all organs involved in it, so far as 
we had means of judging; and that while we 
did not know how the brain acted in its 



70 The Prison Life 

reception or emission of ideas — whether 
purely passively, or with some physical 
action, however slight — w^e did know for 
certain that the brains of all great intellectual 
workers were much larger, on the average, 
than were those of men pursuing different 
callings. 

Remarked that with these ideas, he must to 
a great extent be a believer in phrenology ; to 
which he assented, while at the same time 
protesting against the charlatanisms which 
had overlapped, for selfish purposes of gain, 
what of truth there was in the science. Be- 
fore the matter could be properly tested, the 
anatomy of the brain should be made a 
specialty, and studied with all the assistance 
of innumerable subjects for many years. But 
the men who now put themselves forward as 
professors of the science, had probably never 
seen the inside of any brain — -certainly not of 
half a dozen — in their lives. 

Referring to the stories that were probably 
being circulated about him in the Northern 
papers, and the falseness of such stories in 



of Jefferson Davis, 7 1 

general, Mr. Davis instanced what he called 
the foul falsehood that he had preached and 
effected the repudiation of the Mississippi 
bonds. 

" There is no truth in the report," he said. 
" The event referred to occurred before I had 
any connection with politics — my first en- 
trance into which was in 1843; nor was I at 
any time a disciple of the doctrine of repudia- 
tion. Nor did Mississippi ever refuse to 
acknowledge as a debt more than one class of 
bonds — those of the Union State Bank 
only. 

" To show how absurd the accusation is," 
continued Mr. Davis, " although so widely 
believed that no denial can affect its cur- 
rency, take the following facts. I left Mis- 
sissippi when a boy to go to college ; thence 
went to West Point ; thence to the army. In 
1835 I resigned, settled in a very retired 
place in the State, and was wholly unknown, 
except as remembered in the neighborhood 
where I had been raised. At the time when 
the Union Bank bonds of Mississippi were 



72 The Prisron Life 

issued, sold and repudiated — as I believe 
justly, because their issue was in violation of 
the State Constitution — I endeavored to have 
them paid by voluntary contributions ; and 
subsequently I sent agents to England to 
negotiate for this purpose." 

Recurring then to the subject of optics and 
diseases of the eye — which appeared a favorite 
with him — Mr. Davis descanted on the curious 
effects of belladonna on the iris and crystal- 
line lens; stating that, though a valuable 
remedy when only used as such, it tended to 
coagulate and produce cataract in the latter 
when used in excess — as witness the number 
of cases of this kind of injury amongst the 
ladies of Italy and Spain, where the article 
was much used as a toilette adjunct. He 
spoke of the beautiful provisions of nature for 
the protection of this organ, illustrating by 
the third transparent eyelid or membrane 
which all diving birds drop over the eye 
when darting swiftly through the air or water, 
thus protecting the delicate organ from being 
hurt, while allowing a sufficiency of light to 



of Jefferson Davis, ■ jt^ 

guide them. He could not believe that any 
living things as a class were deprived of the 
joy of sunlight; and while the microscope had 
thus far found no organs that we could re- 
cognise as of sight in many classes of living 
things — shell-fish, worms, and so forth — he 
believed that they must in some manner 
be impressible with the alternations of light 
and darkness. It had so long appeared a 
question with him whether his own eyesight 
could be saved, that he had given this subject 
much attention — or rather reflection ; and he 
quoted from Milton with great pathos several 
passages on the subject : 

Oh dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon ; 
Irrevocably dark ! total eclipse without the hope of day 

And again : 

Nor to these idle orbs doth sight appear 
Of sun, or moon, or stars, throughout the year, 
Or man, or woman. Yet I argue not 
Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot 
Of heart or hope ; but still bear up and steer 
Right onward. 

4 



74 The Prison Life 



CHAPTER VI. 

Operations on the Southern Coast. — Davis 
Hears that he is Indicted and to be Tried. 
— His Joy. — Views of his own Defence. 

May 29TH. — Called with Captain Bispham, 3d 
Pennsylvania Artillery, Officer of the Day. 
Found Mr. Davis walking up and down the 
floor, apparently better — but still laboring 
under some excitement. He said exercise 
had already done him good ; had slept much 
better last night ; and rejoiced to see clear 
and bright weather again, though little sun- 
shine entered his cell. Thought though it 
did not shine on him, it was shining on his 
dear wife and children, safely havened from 
the dangers of the ocean. 

Complained of the dampness of his cell, as 
one probable cause of his illness. The sun 
could never dart its influence through such 



of Jefferson Davis. 75 

masses of masonry. Surrounded as the fort 
was with a ditch, in which the water rose 
and fell from three to four feet with the tide, 
it was impossible to keep such places free 
from noxious vapors. 

" I am something of an engineer," he said, 
" and the causes are obvious. Builders fill in 
the backs of walls with stone-chips and rubble, 
insufficiently mortared, through which the tidal 
water ebbs and falls. When it falls it leaves 
vacuums of damp air, and when it rises again, 
this mephitic air, with its gases engendered in 
closeness, dampness and darkness, is forced up- 
ward into the casemates, for no masonry is so 
perfect as to exclude the permeation of gases. 

" I am aware," he went on, " that officers 
and soldiers and their families have been in 
the habit of occupying these casemates ; but 
when Secretary of War I issued an order 
forbidding the practice. Huts or tents are 
much healthier, more especially for children. 
The casemates of Fort Pulaski were peculiar- 
ly unhealthy, that place being erected on 
what might be called a shaking-scraw, or 



76 The Prison Life 

sponge of miasmatic vegetation, thoroughly 
permeated by tidal action. Its foundations 
had to be pile-driven at an enormous expense 
of money and labor, and only from the neces- 
sities of the coast could such a selection of a 
site have been justified." 

Mentioned that I had been at the siege, 
and gave him some particulars explanatory 
of the actual situation at the time of the sur- 
render of Col. Olmstead of the 2d Georgia 
Volunteers, whom he appeared at first inclin- 
ed to blame as guilty of a premature capitula- 
tion. . After all, however, he thought the 
Colonel was excusable, as further holding-out 
promised no advantages to compensate its 
loss, the up-river batteries of our forces mak- 
ing it certain that Tatnall's fleet could render 
no assistance. The surrender of Port Royal 
he did not think premature, under the cir- 
cumstances, because if his people had not 
retreated when they did, our gunboats, run- 
ning round the creeks in rear of Hilton 
Head, Port Royal and St. Helena Islands, 
would have made retreat impossible ; while 



of yefferson Davis, 77 

the troops of our Sherman expedition when 
landed were more than sufficient to overpower 
the garrisons. The mistake was that power- 
ful works had not been erected in rear of the 
islands to cover the ferries, and thus secure 
uninterrupted communication with the main- 
land. Had this been attended to in the first 
instance, there would then have been no ex- 
cuse for the abandonment of the powerful 
works designed to protect Port Royal — at 
least none unless preceded by a more pro- 
tracted resistance. 

Recurring to the subject of his family, Mr. 
Davis asked me had I not been called upon 
to attend Miss Howell, his wife's sister, who 
had been very ill at the time of his quitting 
the Clyde. Replied that Col. James, Chief 
Quartermaster, had called at my quarters, and 
requested me to visit a sick lady on board that 
vessel ; believed it was the lady he referred to, 
but could not be sure of the name. Had men- 
tioned the matter to Gen. Miles, asking a pass 
to visit; but he objected, saying the orders were 
to allow no communication with the ship. 



78 The Prison Life 

Mr. Davis exclaimed this was inhuman. 
The ladies had certainly committed no crime, 
and there were no longer any prisoners on 
board the ship when the request was made, 
he and Mr. Clay having been the last remov- 
ed. The lady was very seriously ill, and no 
officer, no gentleman, no man of Christian or 
even human feeling, would have so acted. 
Gen. Miles was from Massachusetts, he had 
heard, and his action both in this and other 
matters appeared in harmony with his origin. 
It was much for Massachusetts to boast that 
one of her sons had been appointed his jailor; 
and it was becoming such a jailor to oppress 
helpless women and children. * * =^ *^ =^ * 

Jtine 1st — Called with Captain Korte, Offi- 
cer of the Day, about noon. Had been sent 
for at 8 P.M., but was away fishing. Mr. Davis 
was suffering from a numbness of the extre- 
mities, which he feared was incipient paraly- 
sis. Told him it was merely due to an enfee- 
bled circulation, and recommended bathing 
and friction. 

He asked me what luck fishing, and ap 



of yefferson Davis. 79 

peared in better spirits than usual. Had just 
heard, he said, through an irregular channel, 
that he had been indicted with Mr. Breckin- 
ridge in the District of Columbia, and hoped 
therefore that he was about to have a consti- 
tutional trial — not one by military commis- 
sion, to which he would not have pleaded, 
regarding it as foregone murder. The news 
had reached him through the conversation of 
some soldiers in the guard-room, who some- 
times spoke to each other in loud tones what 
they wished him to overhear. It was proba- 
bly in no friendly spirit they had given him 
this news ; but to him it was as welcome as 
air to the drowning. 

He then referred to the severity of his 
treatment, supposing himself at present to be 
merely held for trial, and not already under- 
going arbitrary 'punishment. As this conver- 
sation was a very important one, I took full 
note of it almost immediately on quitting his 
cell, and it is now given in very nearly, if not 
precisely, his own words : 

" Humanity supposes every man innocent, 



8o The Prison Life 

urged Mr. Davis, " until the reverse shall be 
proven ; and the laws guarantee certain privi- 
leges to persons held for trial. To hold me 
here for trial, under all the rigors of a con- 
demned convict, is not warranted by law — is 
revolting to the spirit of justice. In the poli- 
tical history of the world, there is no parallel 
to my treatment. England and the despotic 
governments of Europe have beheaded men 
accused of treason ; but even after their con- 
viction no such efforts as in my case have 
been made to degrade them. Apart, however, 
from my personal treatment, let us see how 
this matter stands. 

" If the real purpose in the matter be to 
test the question of secession by trying cer- 
tain persons connected therewith for treason, 
from what class or classes should the persons 
so selected be drawn ? 

" From those who called the State Conven- 
tions, or from those who, in their respective 
conventions, passed the ordinance of seces- 
sion ? Or, from the authors of the doctrine 
of State rights ? Or, from those citizens 



of Jefferson Davis. 8i 

who, being absent from their States, were 
unconnected with the event, but on its occur- 
rence returned to their homes to share the 
fortunes of their States as a duty of primal 
allegiance ? Or from those officers of the 
State, who, being absent on public service, 
were called home by the ordinance, and 
returning, joined their fellow-citizens in State 
service, and followed the course due to that 
relation ? 

" To the last class 1 belong, who am the 
object of greatest rigor. This can only be 
explained on the ' supposition that, having 
been most honored, I, therefore, excite most 
revengeful feelings — for how else can it be 
accounted for? 

" I did not wish for war, but peace. 
Therefore sent Commissioners to negotiate 
before war commenced ; and subsequently 
strove my uttermost to soften the rigors of 
war; in every pause of conflict seeking, if 
possible, to treat for peace. Numbers of 
those already practically pardoned are those 
who, at the beginning, urged that the black 

4* 



82 The Prison Life 

flag should be hoisted, and the struggle 
made one of desperation. 

" Believing the States to be each sover- 
eign, and their union voluntary, I had 
learned from the Fathers of the Constitu- 
tion that a State could change its form of 
government, abolishing all which had pre- 
viously existed ; and my only crime has been 
obedience to this conscientious conviction. 
Was not this the universal doctrine of the 
dominant Democratic party in the North 
previous to secession ? Did not many of 
the opponents of that party, in the same 
section, share and avow that faith ? They 
preached, and professed to believe. We 
believed, and preached, and practised. 

" If this theory be now adjudged errone- 
ous, the history of the States, from their 
colonial organization to the present moment, 
should be re-written, and the facts sup- 
pressed which may mislead others in a like 
manner to a like conclusion. 

But if — as I suppose — the purpose be to 
test the question of secession by a judicial 



of Jefferson Davis. 83 

decision, why begin by oppressing the chief 
subject of the experiment? Why, in the 
name of fairness and a decent respect for 
the opinions of mankind, deprive him of 
the means needful to a preparation of his 
defence ; and load him with indignities 
which must deprive his mind of its due 
equilibrium ? It ill comports with the dig- 
nity of a great nation to evince fear of giv- 
ing to a single captive enemy all the advan- 
tages possible for an exposition of his side 
of the question. A question settled by vio- 
lence, or in disregard of law, must remain 
unsettled for ever. 

" Believing all good government to rest on 
truth, it is the resulting belief that injustice to 
any individual is a public injury, which can 
only find compensation in the rcr.ction which 
brings retributive justice upon the oppressors. 
It has been the continually growing danger 
of the North, that in attempting to crush the 
liberties of my people, you would raise a 
PVankenstein of tyranny that would not down 
at your bidding. Sydney, and Russell, and 



84 The Prison Life 

Vane, and Peters, suffered ; but in their death 
Liberty received blessings their Hves might 
never have conferred. 

" If the doctrine of State Sovereignty be a 
dangerous heresy, the genius of America 
would indicate another remedy than the sacri- 
fice of one of its believers. Wickliffe died, 
but Huss took up his teachings; and when 
the dust of this martyr was sprinkled on the 
Rhine, some essence of it was infused in the 
cup which Luther drank. 

" The road to grants of power is known 
and open ; and thus all questions of reserved 
rights on which men of highest distinction 
may differ, and have differed, can be settled 
by fair adjudication; and thus only can they 
be finally set at rest." 

He then apologized for talking politics to 
one who should not hear such politics as his ; 
but out of the fulness of the heart the mouth 
speaketh, and in his joy at the unhoped-for 
news that he had been indicted, and was to 
have a trial which he supposed must be pub- 
lic, and which publicity would compel to be 



of Jefferson Davis, 85 

not wholly one-sided, there was some excuse 
for his indiscretion. 

To change the subject, he returned to fish- 
ing, of which we had been speaking. Was a 
follower and admirer of the sport, but more in 
theory than practice. His life had been too 
busy for the past thirty years to allow his in- 
dulging even his most cherished inclinations, 
except at rare intervals. Izaak Walton had 
been one of his favorite authors ; and one of 
the counts he had against Benjamin Frank- 
lin, was the latter's fierce attack on the gentle 
fisherman. Indeed Franklin had said many 
things not of benefit to mankind. His soul 
was a true type or incarnation of the New 
England character — hard, calculating, angu- 
lar, unable to conceive any higher object than 
the accumulation of money. He was the 
most material of great intellects. None of 
the lighter graces or higher aspirations found 
favor in his sight ; and with true New Eng- 
land egotism, because he did not possess cer- 
tain qualities himself, they were to be ignored 
or crushed out of existence everywhere. The 



86 The Prison Life 

hard, grasping, money-grubbing, pitiless and 
domineering spirit of the New England Puri- 
tans found in Franklin a true exponent. 
Noble qualities he had, however — courage, 
truth, industry, economy and honesty. His 
school of common sense was the apotheosis 
of selfish prudence. He could rarely err, for 
men err from excess of feeling, and Franklin 
had none. The homely wisdom of his writ- 
ings, judged from the material stand-point, 
could never be surpassed ; and while he con- 
fessed to disliking him, he was compelled to 
admire his " Poor Richard " from its sinewy 
force. 

Mr. Davis then spoke of the restrictions 
placed upon his reading, which he supposed 
must soon terminate if he was to be placed 
on trial. Books would be indispensable to 
preparing his defence, nor did he see how he 
could be denied free intercourse with counsel. 

Books, if he could get them, would be a 
great consolation. True, he had the two best 
— pointing to his Bible and prayer-book ; but 
the mind could not keep continually at the 



of Jefferson Davis. Sy 

height and strain of earnestness required for 
their profitable reading. That the papers and 
other pubHcations of the day should be de- 
nied him, he could understand — though even 
this would not be right when he was prepar- 
ing for trial. He would then require to know 
what phase of public opinion he addressed ; 
for in all such trials — and in this age of 
publicity there must be two tribunals — one 
inside, but infinitely the vaster one outside 
the court-room. To old English or other 
books for his perusal, what objection could 
be urged ? Such indulgences were given to 
the worst criminals before trials ; and even 
after conviction the prison libraries were 
open for their use. A mind so active as his 
had been for forty years, could not suddenly 
bring its machinery to a pause. It must 
either have food, or prey upon itself, and this 
was his case at present. Except for the pur- 
pose of petty torture, there could be no color 
of reason for withholding from him any books 
or papers dated prior to the war. 

yu7ie ']th. — I received the following letter 



88 The Prison Life 

from Mrs. Davis, dated Savannah, June ist, 
1865, to Dr. J. J. Craven, Chief Medical Offi- 
cer, Fort Monroe, Va. 

Savannah, Ga., June ist, 1865. 

Dr. J. J. Craven, Chief Med. Officer, Fort Mon* 

roe, Va, : 

Sir, — Through the newspapers I learn that 
you are the Surgeon of the post, and con- 
sequently in attendance upon Mr. Davis. 
Shocked by the most terrible newspaper ex- 
tras issued every afternoon, which represent 
my husband to be in a dying condition, I 
have taken the liberty, without any previous 
acquaintance with you, of writing to you. 
Perhaps you will let me know from your own 
pen how he is. Would it trouble you too 
much to tell me how he sleeps — how his eyes 
look — are they inflamed } — does he eat any- 
thing ? — may I ask what is the quality of his 
food ? Do not refuse my request. It seems 
to me that no possible harm could accrue to 
your government from my knowing the ex- 
tent of my sorrow. And if, perchance, actu- 
ated by pity, you do not tell me the worst, the 



of Jefferson Davis. 89 

newspapers do, and then the uncertainty is 
such agony ! You will perceive, my dear sir, 
that I plead with you upon the supposition 
that you sympathize with our sorrows, and in 
the sufferings of the man have lost sight of 
the political enemy, who no longer has the 
power to do aught but bear what is inflicted. 
I will not believe that you can refuse my 
petition. If you are only pennitted to say 
he is well, or he is better, it will be a great 
comfort to me, who has no other left. If you 
are kind to him, may God have you in His 
holy keeping, and preserve all those sources 
of happiness to you which have, in one day, 
been snatched away from. 

Yours very respectfully, 

Varina Davis. 



go The Prison Life 



CHAPTER VIL 

Mr, Davis on the New England Character, — 
Future of the South and Southern Blacks, 

June 8th. — Was called to the prisoner, whom I 
had not seen for a week. Entered with 
Captain E. A. Evans, Officer of the Day. 
Found Mr. Davis relapsing and very despond- 
ent. Complained again of intolerable pains 
in his head. Was distracted night and day by 
the unceasing tread of the two sentinels in his 
room, and the murmur or gabble of the guards 
in the outside cell. He said his casemate was 
well formed for a torture-room of the inquisi- 
tion. Its arched roof made it a perfect whisp- 
ering gallery, in which all sounds were jumbled 
and repeated. The torment of his head was 
so dreadful, he feared he must lose his mind. 
Already his memory, vision, and hearing, were 



of yefferson Davis. 91 

impaired. He had but the remains of one 
eye left, and the glaring, whitewashed walls 
were rapidly destroying this. He pointed to 
a crevice In the wall where his bed had been, 
explaining that he had changed to the other 
side to avoid Its mephltic vapors. 

Of the trial he had been led to expect, had 
heard nothing. This looked as If the Indict- 
ment were to be suppressed, and the action 
of a Military Commission substituted. If so, 
they might do with him as they pleased, for 
he would not plead, but leave his cause to the 
justice of the future. As to taking his life, 
that would be the greatest boon they could 
confer on him, though for the sake of his 
family he might regret the manner of its 
taking. 

Talked with Mr. Davis for some time, en- 
deavoring to allay his irritation. The trouble 
of his head did not arise from the causes he 
supposed, but from a torpid condition of the 
liver, and would be at once relieved by a bi- 
lious cathartic which I prescribed. It was 
impossible that any malarial poisons at this 



92 The Prison Life 

season of the year could have influence in his 
casemate. The ventilation was .thorough, the 
place scrupulously clean ; and the very white- 
wash of which he complained as hurting his 
eyes, was a powerful disinfectant, if such 
poisons existed. After the action of the 
medicine he would look on the world with a 
more hopeful view. In regard to his expected 
trial, knew nothing, never had known any- 
thing, and even knowing would be forbidden 
to speak. 

He said he had not mentioned the matter 
to question me, but as an ejaculation of 
impatience, for which his intolerable pain 
must bear the blame. He was no stranger 
to pain, nor easily overcome by it. At 
Buena Vista, though severely wounded, he 
kept saddle until the close of the day; but 
the pain of no wound could compare to this 
aching fury of the brain. 

June gth. Called, accompanied by Cap- 
tain Korte, Officer of the Day. Mr. Davis 
very well — almost entirely relieved. Said he 
would believe after this that disquietude 



of Jefferson Davis. 93 

could be best reached through the stomach. 
Had slept well, and was greatly refreshed ; 
his head almost free from pain. 

Calling me to the embrasure, he pointed 
out some dark spots on the slope of the 
moat opposite, and asked me what they 
were. Told him they were oysters. He 
had thought so, but was not sure. Had 
seen them growing in a stranger place — the 
branches of trees so heavily fruited with 
them as almost to break. Told him I had 
seen the same thing, but only along the 
coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and 
Florida. In the South the oysters cling to 
high rocks and drooping branches of trees, 
only requiring to be submerged for a few 
hours at high tide ; while with us, the frosts 
of winter compel them to keep in deep water. 

Mr. Davis spoke of the Coon oysters of 
the Southern coast — the long, razor-shaped 
oysters, growing on high ledges, and referred 
to the negro version of how the coons 
obtained their flesh. Their story is, that 
the coon takes in his mouth a blade of 



94 The Prison Life 

bluebent, or meadow grass, and when the 
oyster opens his shell, drives the stiletto 
point of the grass into his flesh, killing him 
instantly, so that he has no power to close 
his defences. This, though ingenious, is 
not true. The coon bites off the thin edges 
of the shell at one point, and then sucks 
out all the softer parts of the body. 

In regard to the propagation of oysters, 
had some talk, Mr. Davis thinking the 
spawn drifted in the water unable to control 
itself and adhered to the first solid sub- 
stance — rock, bank, or branch — with which 
it was brought in- contact. This, I ex- 
plained, was not so ; the oyster, for the first 
three or four days of his life, being a tuni- 
cated pteropod, able to swim in any direc- 
tion he may please. At the end of this 
first period, when he finds a congenial 
object to fasten upon, he literally settles 
down in life and commences building him- 
self a house from which there is no annual 
" May moving " — no process of ejectment 
short of death. 



of Jefferso7i Davis. 95 

Talking of the shell-fish and snails of the 
Southern coast, Mr. Davis referred to the 
beautiful varieties of helix {dullima immaculata^ 
very rare, and bullima oblongata) that may be 
seen feeding on the wild orange-trees of 
Florida. Also to the sport of harpooning 
devil-fish by night, first attracting them to the 
surface by a fire of pine-knots kindled in a 
cresset over the bow of the boat. The skin 
of the largest devil-fish ever known, he said, 
had been preserved in Charleston, its weight 
when caught being fourteen hundred pounds. 
Told him I had seen one caught about two 
years before weighing over six hundred 
pounds, and the old negroes of the island said 
it was the heaviest they had seen. He talked 
of the molluscs and Crustacea of the coast, 
this appearing a favorite subject, and his re- 
marks being much pleasanter, though of less 
interest, than when given a political complex- 
ion. He possesses a large, varied, and prac- 
tical education ; the geology, botany, and all 
products of his section appearing to have in 
turn claimed his attention. Not the superfi- 



96 The Prison Life 

cial study of a pedant, but the practical ac- 
quaintance of a man who has turned every 
day's fishing, shooting, riding, or pic-nickingj 
to scientific account. 

June lolk. — Mr. Davis out of sorts, very ill- 
tempered. Complained that his clean linen, 
to be sent over twice a week by General Miles, 
had not been received. General Miles had 
taken charge of his clothing, and seemed to 
think a change of linen twice a week enough. 
It might be so in Massachusetts. But now 
even this wretched allowance was denied. 
The general might know nothing of the mat- 
ter ; but if so, some member of his staff was neg- 
ligent. It was pitiful they could not send his 
trunks to his cell, but must insist on thus 
doling out his clothes, as though he were a 
convict in some penitentiary. If the object 
were to degrade him, it must fail. None 
could be degraded by unmerited insult heaped 
on helplessness but the perpetrators. The 
day would come that our people would be 
ashamed of his treatment. For himself, the 
sufferings he was undergoing would do him 



oj Jefferson Davis. 97 

good with his people (the South). Even those 
who had opposed him would be kept silent, 
if not won over, by public sympathy. What- 
ever other opinions might be held, it was clear 
he was selected as chief victim, bearing the 
burden of Northern hatred which should be 
more equally distributed. 

Speaking of the negroes, Mr. Davis re- 
marked, as regards their future, he saw 
no reason why they must die out, unless 
remaining idle. If herded together in idle- 
ness and filth, as in the villages established 
by -our military power, the small-pox, licen- 
tiousness, and drunkenness would make short 
work of them. Wherever so herded, they 
had died off like sheep with the murrain. 
But remaining on the plantations, as hereto- 
tofore, and employed for wages, they were a 
docile and procreative people, altogether differ- 
ing from the Indians, and not likely to die out 
like the latter. Their labor was needed ; and 
though they could not multiply so fast in free- 
dom as under their former wholesome restraints, 
he saw no good argument for their dying out. 



98 The Prison Life 

In ten years, or perhaps less, the South will 
have recovered the pecuniary losses of the 
war. It has had little capital in manufac- 
tures. Its capital was in land and negroes. 
The land remains productive as ever. The 
negroes remain, but their labor has to be paid 
for. Before the war, there had been 4,000,000 
negroes, average value, $500 each, or total va- 
lue, two thousand millions of dollars. This was 
all gone, and the interest upon it, which had 
been the profits of the negro's labor in ex- 
cess of his cost for food, clothing, and medi- 
cines. Still their labor remains ; and with this, 
and such European labor as will be imported 
and such Northern labor as must flow South, 
the profits of the Southern staples will not be 
long in restoring material prosperity. 

The profits of the cotton crop are enor- 
mous. Good bottom lands, such as on the 
Mississippi and Yazoo rivers, yield a bale of 
400 lbs. per acre, and some as high as a bale 
and a quarter ; but this is rare. The uplands 
throughout Georgia, South Carolina, Alaba- 
ma, etc., yield about from half to three-quar- 



of yefferson Davis, 99 

ters of a bale ; and under the old system of 
labor, a good negro averaged ten bales a sea- 
son. The land of the Sea Islands ran about 
200 lbs. to the acre ; but its fine, long, silky, 
and durable staple made it from twice to four 
times the value of other cotton. 

In his freedom, if capable of being made 
to labor at all, the negro will not average 
more than six bales a year ; but as the price 
of cotton has more than doubled, and is not 
likely to recede, even this will yield an enor- 
mous profit. Six bales, of 400 lbs. each, will 
be worth ^600 at twenty-five cents per pound, 
while the cost of this species of labor will be 
about $150 a year per hand and found — a 
profit of certainly not less than $300 a year 
on each black laborer employed. 

The land will not pass to any great extent 
from its former proprietors. They will lease 
it for a few years to men with capital, and 
then resume working it themselves ; or sell 
portions of it with the same object, not 
materially decreasing their own possessions. 
When the country is quiet and the profits of 



lOo The Prison Life 

the crop come to be known, there will be a 
rush southward from the sterile New Eng- 
land regions and from Europe, only equalled 
by that to California on the discovery of gold. 
Men will not stay in the mountains of Ver- 
mont and New Hampshire cultivating little 
farms of from fifty to a hundred acres, only 
yielding them some few hundreds a year pro- 
fit for incessant toil, when the rich lands of 
the South, under skies as warm and blue as 
those of Italy, and with an atmosphere as 
exhilarating as that of France, are thrown 
open at from a dollar and a half to three dol- 
lars per acre. The water-power of the South 
will be brought into use by this new immi- 
gration, and manufactures will spring up in 
all directions, giving abundant employment 
to all classes. The happy agricultural state 
of the South will become a tradition ; and 
with New England wealth. New England's 
grasping avarice and evil passions will be 
brought along. 

The estimate that a million negroes have 
died off during the war, he considered exces- 



of Jefferson Davis, . loi 

sive. They had fled or been dragged away 
from their old homes in great numbers ; but 
much less than a million, he thought, would 
cover their casualties. As to any general 
mingling of the races, nature had erected 
ample barriers against the crime. Depraved 
white men occasionally had children by black 
women ; but it' was comparatively rare for 
mulattoes to have large or healthy families ; 
and quadroons, though extremely amorous, 
rarely had children at all. There could be 
no danger that Southern white women of the 
poorer class, though left greatly in excess of 
the white male population by the war, would 
either cohabit with or marry negroes. Public 
sentiment on the point is so strong they dare 
not do it; nor had they any inclination. It would 
be regarded South as crimes against nature are 
regarded in all civilized communities. 

The blacks were a docile, affectionate, and 
religious people, like cats in their fondness 
for home. The name of freedom had charms 
for them; but until educated to be self-sup- 
porting, it would be a curse. If herded toge- 



T02 The PrisoTp Life 

ther in military villages and fed on rations 
gratuitously distributed, rum, dirt, and vene- 
real diseases would devour them off the face 
of the earth in a few years. With peace 
established, they would return, in ninety-five 
cases out of the hundred, to their old planta- 
tions, and work for their old masters. Free- 
dom was to them an orgie, of which such as 
had enjoyed it were rapidly sickening. While 
health lasted, and idleness was saved its 
penalty by government support, they mighf 
get along well enough. But when sick, starv 
ing, and ill-treated, their first wish was a long- 
ing to be back with their old masters, and 
redomiciled on their old plantations. Of this, 
even during the war, and at penalty of return- 
ing to slavery, he had seen many instances — 
enough to convince him that with freedom 
assured, or rather its evils to them in their 
unprepared state better understood — the great 
majority of the blacks would flock back 
eagerly. 

Mr. Davis said he heard my little daughtei 
had undertaken to be his housekeeper, and 



of yefferson Davis, 103 

sent over his meals. He knew the kind hand 
of woman was always tenderest in the great- 
est grief. It only needed they should see 
misery to wish and labor for its relief, unless 
some great moral turpitude repelled. He 
begged me to carry the assurance of his gra- 
titude, and hoped — if he might never see her 
himself — that his children would some day 
have opportunity to thank the young lady 
who had been so kind to their father. 



I04 The Prison Life 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Mr. Davis on Cruelty to Prisoners, — Mexico, 
— Turtle on the Southern Coast, — The 
Southern Leaders an Aristocracy, — Lecture 
on the Fine Arts, by a Strange Man in a 
Strange Place, 

June nth. — Called with Captain R. W. Bick- 
ley, 3d Pennsylvania Artillery, Officer of the 
Day. Mr. Davis still Improving, febrile symp- 
toms abated, and had slept, for him, very well 
the night before. Thanked me for some fruit 
sent with his breakfast, and then spoke of the 
fruits of the tropics and their beautiful adap- 
tation to the wants of the inhabitants. Also 
of Mexico; its climate and productions ; a 
land for which God had done everything, and 
*' where only man was vile." Considered the 
Mexicans not capable of self-government; 
they must be cared for, and it belonged to 



of Jefferwn Davis, 105 

America to protect them. Had the South 
succeeded without the help of France, this 
would have been one of his first cares, and 
he should not have hesitated a moment. 
The South having failed, leaving the 
North more powerful than ever, the duty 
of establishing a continental protectorate 
was imperative, and could not long be 
evaded. 

Mr. Davis remarked that when his tray of 
breakfast had been brought in that morning, 
he overheard some soldiers in the guard-room 
outside commenting on the food given our 
prisoners during the late war. To hold him 
responsible for this was worse than absurd— 
criminally false. For the last two years of 
the war, Lee's army had never more than 
half, and was oftener on quarter rations of 
rusty bacon and corn. It was yet worse with 
other Southern armies when operating in a 
country which had been campaigned over 
any time. Sherman, with a front of thirty or 
forty miles, breaking into a new country, 
found no trouble in procuring food ; but had 



io6 The Prison Life 

he halted anywhere, even for a single week 
must have starved. Marching every day, his 
men eat out a new section, and left behind 
them a starving wilderness. 

Colonel Northrop, his Commissary-Gene- 
ral, had many difficulties to contend with ; 
and, not least, the incessant hostility of cer- 
tain opponents of his administration, who, by 
striking at Northrop, really meant to strike 

at him. Even General , otherwise so 

moderate and conservative, was finally in- 
duced to join this injurious clamor. There 
was food in the Confederacy, but no means 
for its collection, the holders hiding it after 
the currency had become depreciated ; and, 
if collected, then came the difficulty of its 
transportation. Their railroads were over- 
taxed, and the rolling-stock soon gave out. 
They could not feed their own troops ; and 
prisoners of war in all countries and ages 
have had cause of complaint. Some of his 
people confined in the West and at Look- 
out Point, had been nearly starved at certain 
times, though he well knew, or well believed, 



of yefferson Davis 107 

full prison-rations had been ordered and paid 
for in these cases. 

Herd men together in idleness within an 
inclosure, their arms taken from them, their 
organization lost, without employment for 
their time, and you will find it difficult to 
keep them in good health. They were or- 
dered to receive precisely the same rations 
given to the troops guarding them ; but dis- 
honest Commissaries and Provost-Marshals 
were not confined to any people. Doubtless 
the prisoners on both sides often suffered 
that the officers having charge of them might 
grow rich; but wherever such dishonesty 
could be brought home, prompt punishment 
followed. General Winder and Colonel Nor- 
throp did the best they could, he believed ; 
but both were poorly obeyed or seconded by 
their subordinates. To hold him responsible 
for such unauthorized privations was both 
cruel and absurd. He issued order after 
order on the subject, and, conscious of the 
extreme difficulty of feeding the prisoners, 
made the most liberal offers for exchange — 



io8 The Prison Life 

almost willing to accept any terms that would 
release his people from their burden. Non- 
exchange; however, was the policy adopted 
by the Federal Government — just as Austria, 
in her later campaigns against Fl-ederick the 
Great, refused to exchange; her calculation 
being, that as her population was five times 
more numerous than Prussia's, the refusal to 
exchange would be a wise measure. That it 
may have been prudent, though inhuman, 
situated as the South was, he was not pre- 
pared to deny; but protested against being 
held responsible for evils which no power of 
his could avert, and to escape from which 
almost any concessions had been offered. 

Anxious to hear the opinion of Mr. Davis 
about the future of Mexico, I brought back 
the conversation to that point, suggesting that 
when the country became quiet, and with our 
continual influx of European immigration, we 
might have men and enterprise enough to re- 
setde Mexico, and colonize out the present 
indolent and inefficient race. 

" The programme might answer, " lie 



of yefferson Davis. 109 

thought, " for the thinly peopled parts, though 
even there its fulfillment must be in the re- 
mote future. When the Valley is reached, 
however, the population is comparatively 
dense — twenty to the square mile ; and politi 
cal economy teaches that no people so nume 
rous can be crushed out by colonization. A 
new race must come in to master and Q:uide 
them, using the present generation as hewers 
of wood and drawers of water, while educat- 
ing the next generation for a happier and 
more intelligent future. It was on a recogni- 
tion of this necessity the French Emperor 
based his scheme of European protection; but 
in failing to make terms with the seceded 
States, and support them in their struggle, he 
proved that his comprehension was not equal 
to the problem. The failure of the South 
rendered a future of European rule for Mexico 
impossible." 

June \Afth. — Visited prisoner in company 
with Captain Evans, Officer of the Day. Pre- 
scribed for some slight return of nervous 
headache and sleeplessness. Referring to 



no The Prison Life 

our previous conversation about the shell-fish, 
etc., of the Southern coast, Mr. Davis said 
that books of a scientific nature, if allowed 
him, would keep his attention occupied, and 
could do no harm. Would be glad to have 
a few volumes on the conchology, geology, or 
botany of the South, and was at a loss to 
think how such volumes could endanger his 
safe-keeping. 

Said that the loggerhead-turtle appeared a 
contradiction of the rule that nature makes 
no vain effort — nothing that had not a joer- 
ceivable use. Here, however, was an animal 
averaging from one to three hundred pounds 
weight, very plentiful from Hatteras to the 
Gulf, for which human ingenuity had yet 
found no use. But what part it may perform 
in the economy of the ocean must of course 
remain a mystery. That it had some useful 
mission amongst the denizens of the deep, all 
analogy would lead us to believe. Early in 
the spring they come up from the Caribbean 
Sea and Gulf of Mexico, only approaching 
the shore to lay their eggs when the high 



of Jefferson Davis, 1 1 1 

tide serves just after dusk of the evening. 
The male then remains at the edge of the 
surf, while the female crawls up the beach to 
find a proper place for laying. The place 
being selected, she first makes a hole with 
her head; then increases its size to about that 
of a peck measure, by putting one of her fore- 
fins into it, and twisting herself around until 
the required space has been scooped out. 
The eggs are then laid, about 200 in number, 
nearly the bulk of a hen's ^%^ each, but with a 
soft, pliable, and very tough white skin. This 
done, she packs sand over them to the proper 
depth, and smoothes the place by crawling 
over it several times with heavy pressure. 

Of these eggs, when undisturbed, about 
eighty per cent, are hatched ; in some four or 
five weeks swarms of little turtle suddenly 
breaking out, each about the size and color of 
a ginger-snap, and hurrying towards the water 
with infallible instinct. The eggs have three 
active and powerful enemies — the coon, the 
crow, and the negro. The coon hunts the 
tnrtle-nest by smell, as a certain breed of dogs 



1 1 2 The Prison Life 

in France hunt the truffle, and having taken 
his first meal, leaves the nest open to the 
crows, who are not long in finishing what 
may be lefi:. The negroes search the shores 
every morning at daylight in this season, and 
when they find the track made by a turtle's 
flippers follow it up to where the nest is 
buried, prodding into the sand with a long 
stick until it is found, and carrying off the con- 
tents. The loggerhead is famous for its longe- 
vity, and occasionally weighs from four to six 
hundred pounds. 

Speaking of the peculiarities of his people 
— as he always styled the late Confederate 
States — Mr. Davis said they were essentially 
aristocratic, their aristocracy being based on 
birth and education ; while the men of the 
North were democratic in the mass, making 
money the basis of their power and standard 
to which they aspired. It always commanded 
a premium socially, and was accepted in lack 
of other qualities. No matter how ill-bred or 
base, no man possessed of wealth who had 
not been made judicially infamous, was ex- 



of Jefferson Davis. 1 1 3 

eluded from northern society. This money- 
element entered Into the politics of the 
North, while at the South k was, and always 
had been, powerless. At northern primary 
elections and nominating conventions, the 
reins were for him who had money to pay for 
being allowed control ; and the power thus ob- 
tained by money was used to get back what It 
had cost, and to treble that sum during its 
tenure. 

Birth Is a guarantee we do not Ignore in 
raising stock, nor should we in growing men. 
Which should be more important — the pedi- 
gree of a horse on which we stake our 
money, or that of a man we are asked to 
select for some position of control ? The 
basis of political prominence at the North 
has been money first, and secondly loqua- 
ciousness, effrontery, the arts of the dema- 
gogue ; while at the South — except in the 
case of shining talents lifting some individual 
to eminence by their force — birth, education, 
and representative rather than noisy or 
showy qualities, formed the ladder to distinc- 



114 The Prison Life 

,tion. No one could fail to be impressed with 
this difference while attending our National 
Conventions, Congress, or any other body in 
which the two sections were represented. 
He must not be misunderstood as wishing to 
imply that we had no good blood, no educa- 
tion, no culture at the North — far from it, for 
he knew we had all in abundance ; but under 
our political system, and owing to the vast 
influx of a foreign population, they were 
excluded from our public or representative 
life. In a word, prominence at the North 
has, of late, been obtained either by money 
of the man made prominent, or that he 
served the money interests of those who 
pushed his elevation. This evil must con- 
tinually increase with the increase of immi- 
gration ; while at the South, birth, education, 
and intelligence had been the chief usual ele- 
ments of political distinction — the first neces- 
sity being, however, that the man selected 
should be a true representative of the views 
of his constituency, whether those views were 
right or wrong according to northern notions. 



of Jefferson Davis, 115 

To this representative quality, Mr. Davis 
went on, were due the various positions with 
which the South had honored him. His 
selection to the chief office of the Confe- 
deracy was in no manner sought. The rea- 
sons inspiring the choice were obvious. He 
was a Mississippian ; had graduated at the 
Military Academy ; served with some dis- 
tinction in the Mexican war ; had large expe- 
rience in the military committee of the Se- 
nate, and in the War Department. But one 
of his chief recommendations lay in this, 
that after the removal of Calhoun and Gen- 
eral Quitman by death, he became the chief 
exponent or representative of those princi- 
ples of State Sovereignty which the South 
cherished, and of which, as he claimed, the 
Fathers of the country had been the found- 
ers, Thomas Jefferson the inspired prophet, 
and they the eloquent apostles. He was cer- 
tainly not more responsible for his own eleva- 
tion than any of those who had voted to 
make him President. 

Jmie I'jt/i. — Visited Mr. Davis with Cap- 



ii6 The Prison Life 

tain Korte, Officer of the Day. General 
Miles, learning that the pacing of the two 
sentinels in his room at night disturbed Mr. 
Davis and prevented his sleeping, gave orders 
that the' men should stand at ease during 
their two hours of guard, both night and 
day, instead of pacing their accustomed beat. 
This, Mr. Davis said, was much pleasanter 
for him, but cruel for the men obliged to 
stand so long in one position, as if they had 
been bronze or marble statues. Feared, as it 
cost them suffering, it would make them hate 
him more, as the cause^ — though innocent — 
of their inconvenient attitude ; and there 
were plenty of men wearing uniforms of that 
color who hated him more than enough 
already. 

From this point Mr. Davis glided off to 
some considerations of statuary, commenting 
on the growing taste for representing animals, 
birds and men, in painful or impossible atti- 
tudes in the basso-relievos^ bronzes, and other 
ornaments of modern sculpture. Stricken 
deer contorted by death-wounds ; horses with 



of yefferson Davis. 1 1 7 

sides lacerated by the claws of a clinging 
tiger; partridges, or other birds, choking -in 
snares or pierced with arrows ; dying Indians, 
wounded gladiators, dying soldiers — pain 01 
death in every variety of grade, seemed to 
form the present staples for popular bronze 
and Parian ornament. Our sculptors made 
their horses stand eternally with fore-paws 
poised in air in an attitude only possible for 
a moment to the living animal. Such works 
were not pleasing, but the reverse. They 
fretted the^ sensibilities with petty pain, and 
lacked the repose which should form the 
chief charm of sculpture. The groups of the 
Laocoon and Dying Gladiator were the only 
eminent works of antiquity of which he had 
heard or seen casts, in which pain or horror 
had been the elements depicted ; and in these 
the treatment had been so overwhelmingly 
grand as to numb the sense of suffering by 
the splendor of their beauty. For modern 
sculpture, however — the statuary designed for 
parlor ornaments — he wished to see more 
pleasant themes. The agony of a wounded 



Ii8 The Prison Life 

deer or bird could have nothing to reconi 
mend it but the fidehty of imitation with 
which the agony was portrayed ; while in the 
Laocoon, there was the titanic struggle of the 
father to free his children from the coils of 
the serpent, and behind the Dying Gladiator 
rose up the gazing circles of the amphi- 
theatre — each subject wakening trains of 
thought and emotion which concealed our 
sense of physical pain, or only allowed It to 
obtrude as a sort of undertone, or diapason, 
to the awful beauty of the picture. 

Mr. Davis, on this subject, was really elo- 
quent, showing a keen appreciation of art, 
and I only regret that my notes report him 
so imperfectly. It struck me as a strange 
place for such a dissertation, a strange man 
strangely circumstanced to be its author, and 
a strange incident — two armed soldiers stand- 
ing like statues within a cell, to have given 
origin in such a mind to a lecture on the 
aesthetics of repose applied to modern sculp- 
ture. 



of Jefferson Davis, 1 1 9 



CHAPTER IX. 

Mr. Davis on Gen. Butler and Dutch Gap. — 
He denies that Secession was Treason. — His 
Opinion of Grants McClellan^ Pope^ aitd 
other Union Officers ; also of Bragg, Lee 
and P ember ton. — His Flight from Richmond 
and Arrest. 

June \%th — Called on Mr. Davis with Cap- 
tain Jerome E. Titlow, Officer of the Day. 
Found him continuing to improve in general 
health — much stronger than he had been on 
his arrival. Complained of a stricture or 
tightening of the chest, accompanied by a dry 
cough. Ordered him to exercise his arms by 
swinging them back and forth horizontally 
twice or thrice a day. 

Standing at the embrasure, the white sails 
of a passing vessel suggested the trade and com- 
merce of the James, for the mouth of which it 



I20 The Prison Life 

» 

appeared steering. Together in fancy we reas- 
cended the banks of the river, with which Mr. 
Davis was famihar. He asked the fate of all 
the beautiful plantations along its shores ; of 
Brandon belonging to the Harrisons on the 
south bank, a place Gen. Butler had harried ; 
of Westover; and beautiful Shirley on the 
north bank, just opposite Bermuda Hundreds, 
belonging to that noble Virginian of the old 
school, Mr. Hill Carter. Told Mr. Davis it 
was the only one left standing, in all its beauti- 
ful antiquity, of the palaces that once lined the 
James. Carter had been kind to the wounded 
of McClellan's soldiers and had taken no part 
in the war, though very possibly a Southern 
man in sentiment. His place consequently 
had been not only spared from incursion, but 
guarded with jealous care by daily details, and 
was the green spot in the desert made by the 
movements of contending armies. 

Talking of Gen. Butler, said Mr. Davis, with 
a smile, Richmond owes him something, if 
only for giving it the best joke of the war. He 
referred to the Dutch Gap Canal, considered 



J 



of yefferson Davis, 121 

as a war-measure, for as a commercial one, 
improving the navigation of the James, it was 
full of advantage. It was a task imposing 
great hardships upon many thousand soldiers ; 
and must have been inspired by Grant's simi 
lar attempt to change the course of the Mis 
sissippi atVicksburg. If successful, the canal 
only avoided one battery, Fort Howlett, which 
might have been carried by a resolute effort ; 
nor could any of us understand what adequate 
object could be gained by it when completed. 
The James, from Dutch Gap to Richmond, 
was too shallow for gun-boats ; was paved with 
torpedoes, and obstructed in every conceivable 
manner. Besides, the works at Chapin's and 
Drury's Bluffs would still remain. 

Commercially, the canal might be of great 
value to Richmond. The loop of the river 
which it cut off — about seven miles in length 
— formed the shallowest and most intricate 
part of its navigation, from Rockett's to the 
sea. By making a lock of the Dutch Gap 
Canal, and throwing a dam across the river 
jubt below the higher lock, the water up to 



122 The Prison Life 

Richmond might be permanently raised two 
feet and placed beyond tidal influence, thus 
allowing vessels of ten or eleven feet draft to 
reach the city in all stages of the tide, while 
at present vessels drawing even eight or nine 
feet can only with extreme difficulty be 
brought up at high tide. Commercially, the 
canal was good ; but as a war-measure, of i.o 
value. 

Mr. Davis said it was contrary to reason, 
and the law of nations, to treat as a rebellion, 
or lawless riot, a movement which had been 
the deliberate action of an entire people 
through their duly organized State govern- 
ments. To talk of treason in the case of the 
South, was to oppose an arbitrary epithet 
against the authority of all writers on interna- 
tional law. Vattel deduces from his study of 
all former precedent — and all subsequent in- 
ternational jurists have agreed with him — 
that when a nation separates into two parts, 
each claiming independence, and both or 
either setting up a new government, their 
quarrel, should it come to trial by arms or by 



of yefferson Davis. 123 

diplomacy, shall be regarded and settled pre- 
cisely as though it were a difference between 
two separate nations, which the divided sec- 
tions, de facto, have become. Each must ob- 
serve the laws of war in the treatment of 
captives taken in battle, and such negotiations 
as may from time to time arise shall be con- 
ducted as between independent and sovereign 
powers. Mere riots, or conspiracies for law- 
less objects, in which only limited fractions 
of a people are irregularly engaged, may be 
properly treated as treason, and punished as 
the public good may require ; but Edmund 
Burke had exhausted argument on the sub- 
ject, in his memorable phrase, applied to the 
first American movement for independence : 
" I know not how an indictment against a 
whole people shall be framed." 

But for Mr. Lincoln's untimely death, Mr. 
Davis thought, there could have been no 
question raised upon the subject. That event 
— more a calamity to the South than North, ^ 
in the time and manner of its transpiring — 
had inflamed popular passions to the highest 



124 The Prison Life 

pitch, and made the people of the section 
which had lost their chief now seek as an 
equivalent the life of the chief of the section 
conquered. This was an impulse of passion, 
not a conclusion which judgment or justice 
could support. Mr. Lincoln, through his en- 
tire administration, had acknowledged the 
South as a belligerent nationality, exchanging 
prisoners of war, establishing truces, and 
sometimes sending, sometimes receiving, pro- 
positions for peace. On the last of these oc- 
casions, accompanied by the chief member of 
his cabinet, he had personally met the Com- 
missioners appointed by the Southern States 
to negotiate, going half way to meet them 
not far from where Mr. Davis now stood ; and 
the negotiations of Gen. Grant with Gen. 
Lee, just preceding the latter's surrender, 
most distinctly and clearly pointed to the 
promise of a general amnesty ; Gen. Grant, 
in his final letter, expressing the hope that, 
with Lee's surrender, " all difficulties between 
the sections might be settled without the loss 
of another life," or words to that effect. 



of Jefferson Davis. 125 

To my question what he thought of Gen- 
eral Grant, Mr. Davis repHed that he was a 
great soldier beyond doubt, but of a new 
school. If he had not started with an enor- 
mous account in bank, his checks would 
have been dishonored before the culmination 
was reached. At Shiloh he was defeated the 
first day, and would have been destroyed or 
compelled to surrender next morning, but for 
Buell's timely arrival with a fresh and well- 
disciplined reinforcement, the strength of 
which had been variously stated. 

When Secretary of War, he thought 
McClellan the ablest officer in the army, 
and had employed him on two important 
services — as Military Commissioner in the 
Crimea, and to explore a route for the 
Pacific railroad — both of which duties had 
been discharged in a manner to increase 
his reputation. He organized the Army of 
the Potomac admirably, but it required a 
commander of more dash to wield the 
weapon in the field. McClelLan's caution 
amounted very closely to timidity — moral 



126 TJie Prison Life 

timidity, for he was personally brave. On 
his first landing in the Peninsula there had 
been only 7,000 troops to meet him, and 
these he should have rushed upon and over- 
whelmed at whatever cost. Cautious, and 
wishing to spare the blood of his men, lie 
commenced a regular siege at Yorktown 
giving his enemies time to concentrate suffi- 
cient numbers and drive him back. As a 
magnanimous enemy he respected McClellan, 
but thought he had been promoted too rap- 
idly for his own good — before he had ripened 
in command and gained the experience requi- 
site for the supreme position. Had he been 
kept in a subordinate capacity the two first 
years of the war, rising from a division to a 
corps, and thence to command in chief, he 
would have been the greatest of our soldiers. 
He had the best natural gifts and highest 
intellectual training, and was just becoming 
fitted, and the best fitted, for his position 
v^hen removed. Had he been supported by 
the government he might have taken Rich- 
mond two years earlier, and it was with joy 



of Jefferson Davis, 127 

Mr Davis heard of his removal after the bat- 
tles of South Mountain and Antietam. Such 
sacrifices of officers to the ignorance of an 
unwarlike people, anxious to find in him a 
scapegoat for their own lack of discipline or 
endurance, were unavoidable in the early 
stages of every popular war. 

Pope, while Secretary of War, he had 
never been able to make serviceable, and 
Pope held his own gallantly. His mind was 
not less inflated than his body. He was a 
kind of American gascon, but with good sci- 
entific attainments. Sumner and Sedgwick 
were gallant and able soldiers — excellent com- 
manders in action, courteous and reliable in 
all the relations of life. Hunter, of whom I 
asked him specially as one of my old com- 
manders, was his beau ideal of the military 
gentleman — the soul of integrity, intrepidity, 
true Christian piety and honor. Mr. Davis 
had long been associated with him, both in 
the service and socially, and believed Hun- 
ter's want of success due in a great measure 
to his unwillingness to bend to anything 



128 The Prison Life 

mean or sinister. He was rash, impulsive ; a 
man of action rather than thought ; yielding 
to passions which he regarded as divine in- 
stincts or intuitions — the natural temper of a 
devotee or fanatic. 

Of the officers on the Confederate side, 
Mr. Davis spoke in high terms of General 
Lee, as a great soldier and pure, Christian 
gentleman ; also, in praise of Bragg and Pem- 
berton, though the two latter, from unavoida- 
ble circumstances and the hostility of the par- 
ty opposed to Mr. Davis, had not been ac- 
corded the position due to their talents by 
public opinion in either section. Pemberton 
made a splendid defence of Vicksburg, and 
mio^ht have been relieved if the officer com- 
manding the army sent to relieve him (Gene- 
ral Johnson) had not failed to obey the posi- 
tive orders to attack General Grant which 
Mr. Seddon, then Secretary of War, had sent. 
If the same officer, who was upheld in com- 
mand by the anti-administration party, had 
vigorously attacked Sherman at Atlanta when 
directed, the fortunes of the war would have 



of yeffcrsoji Davis, 129 

been changed, and Sherman hurled back to 
Nashville, over a sterile and wasted country 
— his retreat little less disastrous than Napo- 
leon's from Moscow. He did not do so, and 
was relieved — General Hood, a true and spir- 
ited soldier, taking his place — but the oppor- 
tunity was then gone ; and to this de- 
lay, more than to any other cause, the 
Southern people will attribute their over- 
throw, whenever history comes to be truly 
written. 

Bragg's victory over Rosecrans at Chicka- 
mauga, Mr. Davis regarded as one of the 
most brilliant achievements of the war, con- 
sidering the disparity of the forces. The 
subsequent concentration of Grant and 
Hooker with Rosecrans, and the victory of 
their combined forces at Lookout Mountain, 
was the result of an audacity or desperation 
which no military prudence could have fore- 
seen. So confident was Bragg in the impreg- 
nability of his position, that immediately after 
Chickamauga he detached Longstreet, with 

16,000 men — about a third of his entire force 

6* 



130 The Prison Life 

— to make a demonstration against Knoxville 
thus indirectly threatening Grant's communi- 
cations with Nashville. Bragg's position was 
finally carried by the overwhelming numbers 
of the enemy. The opponents of his admin- 
istration censured Bragg for detaching Long- 
street, but the subsequent events which made 
that movement unfortunate were of a cha- 
racter which no prudence could have foreseen, 
no military calculation taken into view as 
probable. 

All such reflections were idle, however, con- 
cluded Mr. Davis, and he must not be again 
betrayed into their indulgence. Success is 
virtue and defeat crime. This is the philoso- 
phy of life — at least the only one the great 
masses of mankind feel ready to accept. Woe 
to the conquered is no less a popular cry in 
the nineteenth century than when the barba- 
rians first yelled it as they swarmed with drip- 
ping swords to the sack of Rome. 

Mr. Davis then spoke of the circumstances 
attending his flight from Richmond. 

On leaving Richmond he went first to Dan- 



of y offer son Davis. 131 

ville, because it was intended that Lee should 
hav^e moved in that direction, faUing back to 
make a junction with Johnson's force in the 
direction of Roanoke River. Grant, however, 
pressed forwaid so rapidly, and swung so far 
around, that Lee was obliged to retreat in the 
direction of Lynchburg with his main force, 
while his vanguard, which arrived at Danville, 
insisted on falling back and making the rally- 
ing-point at Charlotte in North Carolina. 

In Danville Mr. Davis learned of Lee's sur- 
render. Immediately started for Goldsboro', 
where he met and had a consultation with 
Gen. Johnson, thence going on south. At 
Lexington he received a dispatch from John- 
son requesting, that the Secretary of War 
(Gen. Breckinridge) should repair to his head- 
quarters near Raleigh — Gen. Sherman having 
submitted a proposition for laying down arms 
which was too comprehensive in its scope for 
any mere military commander to decide upon. 
Breckinridge and Postmaster-General Reagan 
immediately started for Johnson's camp, where 
Sherman submitted the terms of surren- 



132 The Prison Lift 

der on which an armistice was declared — the 
same terms subsequently disapproved by the 
authorities at Washington. 

One of the features of the proposition sub 
mitted by General Sherman was a declaration 
of amnesty to all persons, both civil and mili- 
tary. Notice being called to the fact parti- 
cularly, Sherman said, "I mean just that;" 
and gave as his reason that it was the only 
way to have perfect peace. He had previ- 
ously offered to furnish a vessel to take away 
any such persons as Mr. Davis might select, 
to be freighted with whatever personal pro- 
perty they might want to take with them, and 
to go wherever it pleased. 

General Johnson told Sherman that it was 
worse than useless to carry such a proposi- 
tion as the last to him. Breckinridge also 
informed General Sherman that his proposi- 
tion contemplated the adjustment of certain 
matters which even Mr. Davis was not em- 
powered to control. The terms were accept- 
ed, however, with the understanding that 
they should be liberally construed on both 



of Jefferso7i Davis, 133 

sides, and fulfilled in good faith — General 
Breckinridge adding that certain parts of the 
terms would require to be submitted to the 
various State governments of the Confede- 
racy for ratification. 

These terms of agreement between John- 
son and Sherman were subsequently disap- 
proved by the authorities at Washington, and 
the armistice ordered to cease after a certain 
time. Mr. Davis waited in Charlotte until 
the day and hour when the armistice ended ; 
then mounted his horse, and, with some ca- 
valry of Duke s brigade (formerly Morgan's), 
again started southward, passing through 
South Carolina to Washington, in Georgia. 
At an encampment on the road, he thinks, 
the cavalry of his escort probably heard of the 
final surrender of General Johnson, though 
he himself did not until much later. Being 
in the advance, he rode on, supposing that 
the escort was coming after. 

As with his party he approached the town 
of Washington, he was informed that a regi- 
ment, supposed to belong to the army of 



134 'I^he Prismi Life 

General Thomas, was moving on the place 
to capture it, ir violation, as he thought, of 
General Sherman's terms. On this he sent 
back word to the General commanding the 
cavalry escort to move up and cover the town 
— an order which probably never reached its 
destination — at least the cavalry never came ; 
nor did he see them again, nor any of them. 
Thinking they were coming, however, and 
not apprehending any molestation from the 
Federal troops, even if occupying the same 
town, he entered Washington, and remained 
there over night — no troops of the United 
States appearing. Here he heard of his wife 
and family, not having seen them since they 
had left Richmond, more than a month be- 
fore his own departure. They had just left 
the town before his arrival, moving South in 
company with his private secretary. Colonel 
Harrison, of whose fidelity he spoke in 
warm terms, and accompanied by a small 
party of paroled men, who, seeing them 
unprotected, had volunteered to be their 
escort to Florida, from whence the family 



of Jefferson Davis. 135 

not Mr. Davis himself, intended to take ship 
to Cuba. 

Mr. Davis regarded the section of country 
he was now in as covered by Sherman's 
armistice, and had no thought that any expe- 
dition could or would be sent for his own 
capture, or for any other warlike purposes 
He believed the terms of Johnson's capitula 
tion still in force over all the country east of 
the Chattahoochie, which had been embraced 
in Johnson's immediate command; citing as 
an evidence of this, that while he was in 
Washington, General Upton, of the Federal 
service, with a few members of his staff, pass- 
ed unattended over the -railroad, a few miles 
from the place, en route for Augusta, to re- 
ceive the muster-rolls of the discharged 
troops, and take charge of the immense mili- 
tary stores there that fell into General Sher- 
man's hands by the surrender. General Up- 
ton was not interfered with, the country being 
considered at peace, though nothing could 
have been easier than his capture, had Mr. 
Davis been so inclined. 



136 The Prison Life 

At this very time, however, a division of 
cavalry had been sent into this district, wliich 
had been declared at peace and promised ex- 
emption from the dangers and burdens of any 
further military operations within its limits, 
for the purpose of capturing himself and 
party ; and this he could not but regard as a 
breach of faith on the part of those who 
directed or permitted it to be done, though 
he did not wish to place himself in the con- 
dition of one who had accepted the terms of 
Johnson's capitulation or taken advantage of 
the amnesty which Sherman had offered. 
But the district in which he then found 
himself had been promised exemption from 
further incursions, and he did not think 
himself justly liable to capture while within 
its limits — though he expected to have to 
take the -chances of arrest when once across 
the Chattahoochie. 

Hearing that a skirmish-line, or patrol, had 
been extended across the country from Ma- 
con to Atlanta and thence to Chattanooga, 
he thought best to go below this line, hoping 



of Jefferson Davis, 137 

to join the forces of his relative, Lieutenant 
General Dick Taylor, after crossing the Chat 
tahoochie. He would then cross the Missis- 
sippi, joining Taylor's forces to those of Kirby 
Smith — of whom he spoke with marked acer- 
bity — and would have continued the fight so 
long as he could find any Confederate force 
to strike with him. This, not in any hope of 
final success, but to secure for the South 
some better terms than surrender at discre- 
tion. " To this complexion," said Mr. Davis, 
" had the repudiation of General Sherman's 
terms, and the surrenders of Lee and John- 
son, brought the Southern cause." 

Mr. Davis left Washington accompanied 
by Postmaster-General Reagan, three aides, 
and an escort of ten mounted men with one 
pack-mule. Riding along, they heard dis- 
tressing reports of bands of marauders going 
about the country stealing horses and what- 
ever else might tempt their cupidity — these 
rumors finally maturing into information 
which caused him to change his course and 
follow on to overtake the train containing his 



138 The Prison Life 

wife and family, for whose safety he began to 
feel apprehensions. 

This object he achieved after riding seventy 
rniles, without halt, in a single day, joining 
Mrs. Davis just at daylight, and in time to 
prevent a party he had passed on the road 
from stealing her two fme carriage-horses 
which formed a particular attraction for their 
greed. "I have heard," he added, "since my 
imprisonment, that it was supposed there was 
a large amount of specie in the train. Such 
was not the fact, Mrs. Davis carrying with her 
no money that was not personal property, and 
but very little of that." 

Having joined his family, he travelled with 
them for several days, in consequence of finding 
the region infested with deserters and robbers 
engaged in plundering whatever was defence- 
less, his intention being to quit his w^ife 
whenever she had reached a safe portion of 
the country, and to bear west across the Chat- 
tahoochie. The very evening before his arrest 
he was to have carried out this arrangement 
believing Mrs. Davis to be now safe; but was 



of Jefferson Davis 139 

prevented by a report brought in through one 
of his aides, that a party of guerillas, or high- 
waymen, was coming that night to seize the 
horses and mules of his wife's train. It was on 
this report he decided to remain another night. 

Towards morning he had just fallen into 
the deep sleep of exhaustion, when his wife'? 
faithful negro servant, Robert, came to him 
announcing that there was firing up the road 
He started up, dressed himself and went out. 
It was just at grey dawn, and by the imperfect 
light he saw a party approaching the camp. 
They were recognised as Federal cavalry by 
the way in which they deployed to surround 
the train, and he stepped back into the tent, 
to warn his wife that the eneiny were at hand. 

Their tent was prominent, being isolated 
from the other tents of the train ; and as he 
was quitting it to find his horse, several of the 
cavalry rode up, directing him to halt and 
surrender. To this he gave a defiant answer. 
Then one whom he supposed to be an officer 
asked, had he any arms, to which Mr. Davis 
replied : " If I had, you would not be alive to 



140 The Prison Life 

ask that question." His pistols had been left 
in the holsters, as it had been his intention, 
the evening before, to start whenever the 
camp was settled ; but horse, saddle, and hol- 
sters were now in the enemy's possession, and 
he was completely unarmed. 

Colonel Pritchard, commanding the Fede- 
ral cavalry, came up soon, to whom Mr. Davis 
said : " I suppose, sir, your orders are accom- 
plished in arresting me. You can have no 
wish to interfere with women and children ; 
and I beg they may be permittecf to pursue 
their journey." The Colonel replied that his 
orders were to take every one found in my 
company back to Macon, and he would have 
to do so, though grieved to inconvenience the 
ladies. Mr. Davis said his wife's party was 
composed of paroled men, who had commit- 
ted no act of war since their release, and 
begged they might be permitted to go to 
their homes ; but the Colonel, under his or- 
ders, did not feel at liberty to grant this re- 
quest. They were all taken to Macon, there- 
fore, reaching it in four days, and from thence 



of yefferson Davis, 141 

were carried by rail to Augusta — Mr. Davis 
thanking Major-General J. H. Wilson for 
having treated him with all the courtesy pos- 
sible to the situation. 

The party transferred to Augusta consisted 
of Reagan, Alexander H. Stevens, Clement 
C. Clay, two of his own aides and private 
secretary, Mrs. Clay, his wife and four chil- 
dren, four servants and three paroled men, 
who had generously offered their protection to 
Mrs. Davis during her journey. Breckinridge 
had been 'with the cavalry brigade, which 
had been the escort of Mr. Davis, and did 
not come up at Washington. He and Secre- 
tary Benjamin had started for Florida, expect- 
ing to escape thence to the West Indies. 
There was no specie nor public treasure in 
the train — nothing but his private funds, and 
of them very little. Some wagons had been 
furnished by the quartermaster at Washing- 
ton, Georgia, for the transportation of his 
family and the paroled men who formed 
their escort, and that was the only train. 
Mr. Davis had not seen his family for some 



142 The Prison Life 

months before, and first rejoined them when 
he rode to their defence from Washington. 

June 22yd. — I received the following letter 
from Mrs. Davis : 

Dated Savannah, Ga., June 14th, 1865. 

Dr. Craven : 

My Dear Sir, — Pursued by dreadful pic- 
tures thrown before me every day in excerpts 
from northern correspondents, and published 
in the daily, journals, in which the agony 
inseparable from defeat and imprisonment is 
represented to have been heightened for my 
husband by chains and starvation, I can no 
longer preserve the silence which I feel 
should be observed by me, in your failure to 
answer my letter of the first inst. Can it be 
that these tales are even in part true ? That 
such atrocities could render him frantic I 
know is not so. I have so often tended him 
through months of nervous agony, without 
ever hearing a groan or an expression of 
impatience, that I know these tales of- child- 
ish ravings are not true — would to God I 



of yefferson Davis. 143 

could believe that all these dreadful rumors 
were false as well ! . 

But there is something about them which 
convinces me that they are not altogether 
false. . You must have been kind to him, else 
he had not told you of his sufferings. Will 
you not, my dear sir, tell me the worst } Is 
he ill — is he dying t Taken from me, with 
only ten minutes' warning, I could not see 
any one to whom I could say that he was 
quite ill ; indeed, suffering from fever at the 
hour of our separation. He has been much 
exposed to a Southern sun in malarial dis- 
tricts, and I dread everything from an attack 
of illness in his depressed condition, even 
were the humanities of life manifested to him. 
With a blaze of light pouring upon the dilat- 
ed pupils of eyes always sensitive to it; 
chains fettering his emaciated limbs ; coarse 
food, served, as the newspapers describe it, in 
the most repulsive manner, without knife, 
fork, or spoon, " lest he should commit sui- 
cide," — hope seems denied to me ; yet I can- 
not reconcile myself to that result, which for 



144 '^^^ Prison Life 

many years must have been his gain. Will 
you only write me one word to say that he 
may recover ? Will you tell him that we are 
well — that our little children pray for him, and 
miss his fatherly care — that his example still 
lives for them. Please tell him not to be 
anxious for us ; that kind friends are with us, 
and that those who love him have adopted 
us, too. Do not tell him, please, that we are 
not permitted to leave here ; for the present, 
we can do very well, and then I expect, every 
day, a permit to leave this city for one more 
healthy. Please try to cheer him about us 
for we are kindly cared for by the Southern 
friends who love him here. Will you not 
take the trouble to Write me, only this once } 
Can it be that you are forbidden ? Else, how 
could a Husband and Father, as I hear you 
are, refuse us such a small favor, productive 
as it would be of such blessed comfort ? 

My children shall pray for you, and per- 
haps the prayers of " one of these little ones " 
may avail much with Him who said, " Suffer 
them to come unto me ;" and that which you 



of J-effersoi} Davis, 145 

have done for another may be returned to 
you with usury in some less happy and pros- 
perous hour. With the hope of hearing from 
you very soon, 

I am, sir. 

Very respectfully 

And gratefully yours, 

Varina Davis. 



40 The Prison Life 



CHAPTER X. 

Diseases of the Eye. — Guards removed from 

the P7^isoiie7^'s Room. — Mr. Davis takes his 

first Walk on the Ramparts. — The Policy 

of Conciliation. — Mr. Davis on Improve- 

mc7its in Land and Naval Warfare, 

June 2\th. — Called on Mr. Davis, accompa- 
nied by Captain Tidow, Officer of the Day. 
On entering found the prisoner, for the first 
time, alone in his cell, the two guards having 
been removed from it in consequence of my 
report to Major-General Miles that their pres- 
ence was counteracting every effort for quiet- 
ing the nerves of the patient. Mr. Davis 
remarked that the change had done him 
good, his last night's sleep having been 
undisturbed. He complained of his eyes, 
and a throbbing pain in the back of his 



of yefferson Davis. 147 

neck, asking me to give the matter particular 
attention, as similar symptoms, at the same 
season last year, in Richmond, had been fol- 
lowed by a severe bilious remittent fever. 

Mr. Davis spoke of the injurious effects of 
reflected light upon the eyes, thence diverg- 
ing to the phenomena of the mirage, and 
the illusions of vision arising from an over- 
excited condition of the optic nerve, or 
peculiar conditions of the atmosphere. The 
mirage on the deserts of Egypt and Arabia 
was chiefly observable in the afternoons, when 
the sands were thoroughly heated, thus pro- 
ducing a different medium of atmosphere, 
close to the earth, and causing the horizontal 
or vertical refraction, < r both, which produced 
the appearance of this so common pheno- 
menon. Science, he remarked, was fast 
explaining, as the result of natural laws, 
nearly all the mysteries of the earth on 
which ignorance in preceding ages had 
founded its superstitions and magicians built 
up a belief in their reputed power. The 
injurious effects of the whitewash upon the 



148 The Priso7i Life 

walls of his cell to his eyes, he attributed to 
the double refractive power — doubly injuri- 
ous — of all salts and crystallized minerals not 
retaining the form of the original cube, the 
regular octohedron, etc. ; and of all these sub- 
stances, the carbonate of lime possessed the 
double refractive power most eminently, and 
was, therefore, most injurious to the sight. 

Mr. Davis said that reading continually the 
same type in his Bible and Prayer-Book had 
become a severe tax upon his sight, of which 
he had often complained to me before ; but 
what was he to do ? Utter inaction for a mind 
so busy as his had been, was impossible: he 
must either furnish it with external employ- 
ment, or allow it to prey upon itself Nature 
had furnished all varieties of pabulum to the 
vision, resting it on one color when weary 
with another, and changing the forms on 
which it had been employed with every object 
of nature. Even with the most healthy, sight 
was a delicate organ, and with him — the sight 
of one eye lost and that of the other seriously 
impaired — peculiarly so. The pupil of the 



of Jeffei^son Davis. 149 

eye was constructed to expand or contiact in 
harmony with each change of light, or color, 
or different form of object ; and to employ the 
vision continually on one size of type, he be- 
lieved must be injurious — at least on no other 
theory could he account for the fast-growing 
alteration of his sight. 

On this subject we had frequently conversed 
before, my views agreeing with those of Mr. 
Davis, who, from the necessities of his case, 
appeared to have pretty thoroughly studied the 
art of the oculist. Indeed it was a remark 
which every day impressed on me more forci- 
bly, that the State prisoner had studied no sub- 
ject superficially, and that his knowledge in all 
the useful arts and sciences was varied, exten- 
sive, and very thorough in each branch. 

Representations in regard to the need Mr. 
Davis stood in of different pabulum, both for 
his eyes and mind, had been previously made 
by me to Major-General Miles, and had been 
confirmed, I rather believe, by Colonel Pineo, 
Medical Inspector of the Department, who 
had visited Mr. Davis in my company on the 



150 The Prison Life 

12th of tliis month, having a long and inter 
esting conversation with the prisoner — a fact 
which should have been mentioned at an 
earlier date ; but as the conversation was one 
in which I took little part, the brief memo- 
randum in my diary escaped notice until re- 
vived by the fuller notes of this day's inter- 
view. It was upon the day of Colonel Pineo s 
visit, also, that Mr. Davis mentioned having 
heard that my little daughter, moved by sym- 
pathy, had volunteered as his housekeeper 
and superintended the sending of his meals. 
Beautiful as woman's character always was, in 
its purity, grace, delicacy, and sympathetic 
action, it was rarely, save in man's hours of 
deepest affliction, that he realized how much 
his nature stood in need of the support of his 
gentle counterpart. Then, picking up a vol- 
ume of prayer from the table, he said : " Doc- 
tor, my wife gave me this. Another, which 
she placed in my valise, I have since received. 
Pray present this, with my love and grateful 
regards, to your little Anna, and say, though 
I may never have an opportunity to thank 



of yefferso7i Davis, 1 5 1 

her myself, my children will one day rise up 
' to call her blessed.' " 

And now to have done with this digression 
and return to my interview of June 24th. 

While the State prisoner was yet speaking 
of the troubles of his sight, Major-General 
Miles entered, with the pleasant announce- 
ment that Mr. Davis was to be allowed 
to walk one hour each day upon the ramparts, 
and to have miscellaneous reading hereafter — 
books, newspapers, and such magazines as 
might be approved, after perusal at headquar- 
ters — an improvement of condition, it must be 
needless to say, very pleasing to the prisoner. 

That afternoon, Mr. Davis took his first 
walk in the open air since entering Fortress 
Monroe ; Major-General Miles supporting him 
on o"ne side, the Officer of the Day on the 
other, and followed by four armed guards. 
Of this party I was not a member, much to 
my regret, for the remarks of the prisoner on 
regaining so much of his liberty, and looking 
upon scenes formerly so familiar, under hap- 
pier circumstances, would beyond doubt have 



152 The Prisofi Life 

been of interest. I only noticed that Mr 
Davis was arrayed in the same garb he had 
worn when entering his cell — indeed General 
Miles had possession of all his other ward- 
robe ; and that while his carriage was proud 
and erect as ever, not losing a hair's breadth 
of his height from any stoop, his step had 
lost its elasticity, his gait was feeble in the ex- 
treme, and he had frequently to press his 
chest, panting in the pauses of exertion. The 
cortege promenaded along the ramparts of the 
South front, Mr. Davis often stopping and 
pointing out objects of interest, as if giving 
reminiscences of the past and making inqui- 
ries of the present. He was so weak, how- 
ever, that the hour allowed proved nearly 
twice too much for him, and he had to be led 
back with only half his offered liberty enjoyed. 
June 2^tk. — Visited prisoner with Captain 
Evans, 3d Pennsylvania Artillery, Officer of 
the Day. Mr. Davis much better, and with 
spirits greatly improved. The application to 
the back of his neck had immediately re- 
lieved the pain, and his sight was less waver- 



of ycffei^son Davis. 153 

ing. He no longer saw the cloud of black 
and amber motes rising and falling before his 
sight. The nervous and painful twitching of 
the eyelids had also in great measure ceased. 
Of all diseases, he most feared photophobia ; 
having seen many cases of it, and heard it was 
the keenest agony of which the human nerves 
are susceptible. Injured as his sight was, he 
knew such a disease must result in total blind- 
ness. " Not that I expect many pleasant 
things to look out upon. Doctor, but that I 
need my sight for my defence, which must 
also be the defence of the cause I represented, 
and which my sufferings have been aimed to 
degrade." 

Asked him how he had enjoyed his walk 
on the previous afternoon. He said the sense 
of breathing air not drawn through iron bars 
was a glorious blessing, only to be appreciated 
by prisoners — one of the thousand common 
blessings which must be lost before we prize 
them. The varieties of view and animation 
of the scene had stimulated and reinvigorated 
his eyes ; but his feebleness had been exces- 



154 ^'/^^ Prison Life 

sive — partly arising, he thought, from a rush 
of novel emotions, partly from the old recol- 
lections that came crowding back to him ; 
and partly because, looking towards the land 
of his people from the Southern front, it seem- 
ed to his mind a vast charnel-house, with the 
black plumes of political death nodding be- 
tween it and the sun. 

"And yet this should not be," continued 
Mr. Davis, " if your authorities at Washing- 
ton be wise. The attempt of certain States 
to separate from the old confederation, in 
which their rights under the fundamental law 
had been violated, having proved abortive, 
and they being coerced back under the Gene- 
ral Government by military force, their rights 
under the Constitution at once return, and 
revive with their submission, unless that in- 
strument shall be deliberately and openly re- 
pudiated. Such was the absolute spirit of 
General Grant's negotiation upon which 
General Lee surrendered ; and such both the 
spirit and letter of General Sherman's propo« 
sals to the General he was contending against' 



of ycjferson Davis. 155 

(General Johnson's name not mentioned). " It 
was also embodied in all the declarations of 
your Government and late President in all 
their public acts ; and I think my people 
would have fought more desperately, and con- 
tinued the war much longer, though hope- 
lessly, had it not been for this expectation. 

" But even apart from this — apart from all 
pledges of faith or obligations of constitu- 
tional law," Mr. Davis went on, " and looking 
on the matter only in the light of future ex- 
pediency, let us see how the case stands. In 
the better days of the Roman empire, when 
its possessions increased, and conquered coun- 
tries came in a few years to be integral, and 
even zealous members of the imperial system, 
it was the policy of conciliation, following that 
of military conquest, which achieved the de- 
sired results. Certain laws and restrictions 
of the imperial government were imposed — 
so much annual tribute, so many legions to 
our military levies, and obedience to all such 
laws of the Central Government as may be 
issued for your control. But. within these 



156 Ike Prison Life 

lines, and with these points conceded, the 
empire strove in all minor and domestic mat- 
ters to conform, in so far as might be possible, 
to the former habits, customs, and laws of the 
people absorbed, and the independent govern- 
ments superseded. Even their peculiarities 
of morals, manners, and religious views were 
studied and respected, when not conflicting 
with the necessities of the empire ; their lead- 
ing men were justly treated, and no efforts 
were spared to make the new order of things 
sit lightly at first, and even pleasantly in a 
few years, on the necks of the subjugated pro- 
vinces. Generosity is the true policy, both 
of nations and individuals. ' There is that 
maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing ; there 
is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great 
riches.' While my people are held as con- 
quered subjects, they must be to you a con- 
tinued source of expense and danger — a coun- 
try penned together with bayonets. Let the 
past be expunged, if you please ; we have 
nothing to blush for in it, and nothing to re- 
gret but failur-e. The necessities of the North- 



of yefferson Davis, 157 

ern treasury and public debt," Mr. Davis 
thought, "A\ould, before long, compel us to do 
justice to this section." 

Mr. Davis then spoke of the immense im- 
provements in the art and practice of war 
which the recent struggle had developed ; this 
in connection with the progress of work on 
the Rip Raps, some iron-clads he had seen in 
the roadstead, and the fifteen-inch Rodman 
guns which now stand e7i barbette on each 
bastion of the fort. 

England's naval supremacy he considered 
lost by the invention of iron-clads, these con- 
verting the conditions of maritime warfare 
from a question of dexterity and personnel 
into one of machinery, and in machinery the 
Americans could have no superiors, while in 
all other qualities they were at least the equals 
of the British. The science of naval gunnery 
had also been revolutionized, the new princi- 
ple being to concentrate into a single crush- 
ing shot the former scattered forces of a broad- 
side. The problem of the iron-clad was to 
attain the maximum of offensive power while 



158 ' The Prison Life 

• 
exposing the least possible and most strongly 

armored objective points to the projectiles of 
the enemy ; and in such plans of our iron-clads 
as he had lately seen, these desiderata seemed 
to have been very nearly attained. For cross- 
ing the ocean, however, and for cruising on 
peaceful stations, our vessels lay too low in 
the water, either for safety from storms, or the 
comfort and health of the crews and officers. 
If our present vessels had in them vast wells, 
which, when empty, would cause the hulls to 
float eight or ten feet above the water, and 
which, on being filled when going into action, 
would reduce tliem to their present level, he 
thought no grander instruments of belligerency 
could be imagined. Wooden bottoms, with ar- 
mored sides and armored turrets, he could not 
but think would prove the best. The enormous 
weight superimposed, coupled with the rollings 
of the sea, must soon chafe and wear away the 
rivets and plates of an iron bottom, no matter 
how carefully secured; while wooden hulls sat 
more easily on the water, and both avoided 
chafing and obtained greater speed by their 



of Jefferson Davis. 159 

capacity of yielding a little. Even the sea 
In Its laws, concluded Mr. Davis with a smile, 
teaches the policy of conciliation- — of conces 
slon ; vessels making headway as their lines 
conform to the resistance of the ocean, and 
have some power of yielding to the pressure 
of the billows. To attain the greatest speed, 
we should take for model the swiftest fish, 
and conform to that as much as circumstances 
would permit ; and in this connection he re- 
ferred approvingly to the cigar-shaped vessels 
of Mr. WInans, of Baltimore. 

In regard to the improvements In ordnance, 
he spoke at great length, displaying not 
merely a very observant knowledge of all the 
changes In modern artillery and projectiles, 
but also of the science of metallurgy as ap- 
plied to the production of ordnance. He dis- 
cussed the atomic theory, or relationship of 
particles, and the effects on Iron fibre of differ- 
ent temperatures and treatments, as by ham- 
mering, rolling, and the various methods of 
cooling ; detailing with a minuteness I could 
not hope to follow, numerous experiments in 



[6o The Prison Life 

the construction and effect of ordnance while 
he was Secretary of War. The Swedish and 
Russian iron had been reputed best, but he 
thought experiment would prove that the iron 
of the Shenandoah Valley and of Eastern 
Tennessee, when properly treated, would be 
at least as good, if not superior, for this cli- 
mate. In the Tredegar Iron- Works, an enor- 
mous amount of work had been done, and 
many improvements in puddling and casting 
introduced ; but the continued and ever-in- 
creasing necessities of the war, as the block- 
ade became more effective, made rapidity the 
one thing needful, and much of the w^ork, 
more especially of late, had been rough and 
defective. 

Rifled guns he had been at first inclined to 
favor, and for certain classes of service at long 
range, they must always remain the best. For 
tearing and destroying forts of masonry, the 
results at Pulaski and Sumter had demon- 
strated their value ; but as earthworks would 
hereafter be employed wherever possible, their 
superiority in this respect was of less import- 



of Jefferson Davis. i6l 

ance. For naval engagements, at long range, 
they would also be better ; but with iron-clad 
ships, all future engagements must be within 
a few hundred yards, and then the slow, crush- 
ing shot of the heavy smooth bore was the 
thing needed. For chasing a blockade-run- 
ner or crippling a flying ship, the rifled gun ; 
but for crushing in the sides or turret of an 
armored vessel, the heavy thirteen or fifteen- 
inch shot from a smooth bore, propelled by 
slow-burning powder, would be most effica- 
cious. Quick-burning powder strained the 
gun too much by its shock, hurled out the 
projectile before the powder behind it had 
been half developed, and also wasted not less 
than a third of the charge before the process 
of combustion had time to take place. He 
spoke of Captain Dahlgren and his experi- 
ments in ordnance while he (Mr. Davis) had 
been Secretary of War, remarking that, rightly 
or wrongly, the Captain had been accused of 
appropriating as his own, with very trivial al- 
terations, if any, discoveries which were sub- 
mitted to him for examination and report as 



1 62 The Priso7i Life 

chief of ordnance in the navy yard Of the 
Rodman he spoke approvingly, regarding its 
chilling process as the true one ; but for perfec- 
tion of elaborate workmanship and detail no 
guns he had ever seen were superior to some 
of those received through the blockade from 
England. It was a mistake, however, to be too 
minute in war. War was a rough business, 
and rough tools would carry it through if there 
were only plenty of them, and in the hands of 
anything like a sufficiency of proper men. 

From this time, the prisoner received books 
and newspapers freely, chiefly reading of news- 
papers, the New York Herald, and of books, 
histories — Mr. Bancroft appearing his favorite 
American author. I recommended him to be 
very moderate at first in his open-air exercise, 
gauging the amount of exercise to his strength ; 
and from this time forward Mr. Davis went 
out every day for an hour's exercise, the 
weather and his health permitting. 



of Jefferson Davis. 163 



CHAPTER XL 

Mr. Lincoln s Assassination. — Ex-President 
Pierce. — Torticre of being Consta7ztly Watch- 
ed. — Mr. Davis on the Members of his Cabi- 
net and the Opponents of his Administra- 
tion. — Touching Tribute to the Memory of 
'' StonewalT' Jackson, 

Sunday, Jtdy nth. — Was sent for by Mr. 
Davis, and called in company with Captain R. 
O. Bickley, Officer of the Day. 

Found prisoner very desponding, the failure 
of his sight troubling him, and his nights 
almost without sleep. His present treatment 
was killing him by inches, and he wished 
shorter work could be made of his torment. 
He had hoped long since for a trial, which 
should be public, and therefore with some 
semblance of fairness ; but hope deferred was 
making his heart sick. The odious, malig- 



164 The Prison Life 

•" 
nant and absurd insinuation that he was con 

nected in some manner with the great crime 
and folly of Mr. Lincoln's assassination, was 
his chief personal motive for so earnestly de- 
siring an early opportunity of vindication. 
But apart from this, as he was evidently made 
the representative in whose person the action 
of the seceding States was to be argued and 
decided, he yet more strongly desired for this 
reason to be heard in behalf of the defeated, 
but to him still sacred cause. The defeat he 
accepted, as a man has to accept all necessi- 
ties of accomplished fact ; but to vindicate the 
theory and justice of his cause, showing by the 
authority of the Constitution and the Fathers 
of the Country, that his people had only as- 
serted a right — had committed no crime ; this 
was the last remaining labor which life could 
impose on him as a public duty. Mr. Davis 
then spoke of Ex-President Franklin Pierce in 
terms of warm, admiration, as the public man 
who had studied constitutional law, and the 
relation of the States to highest profit, remark- 
ing, that if he were given any choice of coun- 



of yefferson Davis, 165 

sel, Mr. Pierce would be one of those whose 
advice he would think most reliable. He also 
spoke of Mr. Charles Eames, of Washington, 
as a walking encyclopaedia of constitutional 
law, very accurate and ready in his reference 
to precedents ; adding that he had seen a re- 
port in the Herald that Messrs. Reverdy John- 
son, of Maryland, and Charles O'Conor, of 
New York, had professed their readiness to 
assume his defence, when approached by some 
of his friends for that purpose, for which he 
felt grateful, both personally and for his people. 
His own fate was of no importance in this 
matter, save to the Government, on which his- 
tory would devolve the responsibility for his 
treatment. Martyrdom, while representing 
the deliberate action of his people, would be 
immortality; but for the sake of justice, not 
merely to his own people, but to the whole 
American people, whose future liberties were 
now^ at stake in his person, a fair and public 
trial was now the necessity of the situation. 

" My people," he added, " attempted what 
your people denounced as a revolution. My 



1 66 The Prison Life 

people failed ; but your 'people have suffered 
a revolution which must prove disastrous to 
their liberties unless promptly remedied by 
legal decision, in their efforts to resist the 
revolution Vv^hich they charged my people 
with contemplating. State sovereignty, the 
corner-stone of the Constitution, has become 
a name. There is no longer power, or will, 
in any State, or number of States, that would 
dare refuse compliance with any tinkle of 
Mr. Seward's bell." 

Mr. Davis complained this sleeplessness 
was aggravated by the lamp kept burning in 
his room all night, so that he could be seen 
at all moments by the guard in tl;c outer 
cell. If he happened to doze one feverish 
moment, the noise of relieving guard in the 
next room aroused him, and the lamp poured 
its full o:lare into his achinor and throbbins: 
eyes. There must be a change in this, or he 
would go crazy, or blind, or both. 

" Doctor," he said, " had you ever the con- 
sciousness of being watched } Of having 
an eye fixed on you every moment, intently 



of yeffcrso7t Davis. 167 

scrutinizing your most minute actions, and 
the variations of your countenance and pos- 
ture ? The consciousness that the Omni- 
scient Eye rests upon us, in every situation, 
is the most consoHng and beautiful behef of 
rehgion. But to have a human eye riveted 
on you in every moment of waking or sleep- 
ing, sitting, walking, or lying down, is 
a refinement of torture on anything the 
Camanches or Spanish Inquisition ever 
dreamed. They, in their ignorance of cruel 
art, only struck at the body ; and the nerves 
have a very limited capacity of pain. This 
is a maddening, incessant torture of the 
mind, increasing with every moment it is 
endured, and shaking the reason by its inces- 
sant recurrence of miserable pain. Letting 
a single drop of water fall on the head every 
sixty seconds does not hurt at first, but its 
victim dies of raving agony, it is alleged, if 
the infliction be continued. The torture of 
being incessantly watched is, to the mind, 
what the water-dropping is to the body, but 
more afilictive, as the mind is more suscepti- 



1 68 The Prison Life 

ble of pain. The Eye of Omniscience looks 
upon us with tenderness and compassion ; 
even if conscious of guilt, we have the com- 
fort of knowing that Eye sees also our repent- 
ance. But the human eye forever fixed upon 
you is the eye of a spy, or enemy, gloating 
in the pain and humiliation which itself cre- 
ates. I have lived too long in the woods to 
be frightened by an owl, and have seen death 
too often to dread any form of pain. But I 
confess. Doctor, this torture of being watched 
begins to prey on my reason. The lamp 
burning in my room all night would seem a 
torment devised by some one who had inti- 
mate knowledge of my habits, my custom 
having been through life never to sleep 
except in total darkness." 

This conversation, so far as related to its 
medical aspect, I deemed it my duty to com- 
municate that afternoon to Major-General 
Miles, who could not remove the lamp alto- 
gether, but directed that it should be screened 
at night, so that no direct and glaring beams 
should be thrown into the prisoner's eyes. 



of Jefferson Davis. 169 

Soon after this interview, I received a third 
letter from Mrs. Davis, as follows : 

Savannah, Ga., July 2, 1865. 

Dr. J. J. Craven : 

My Dear Sir, — I have written to you three 
times, and no answer has been returned ; but 
I am not capable of the " still yet brave 
despair," which I know is required in my 
hopeless position. Thanks to God, that He 
has raised you up a " present help " in my 
husband's time of trouble, are daily ren- 
dered. 

Am I intrusive in offering gratitude and 
earnest prayers for your welfare and that of 
your household, and for your manly disregard 
of everything but the suffering man before 
you? I know you have been kind, for the 
only concordance between any of the number- 
less harrowing statements which daily agonize 
me, is that you are always represented as kind 
to him — as ministering to his necessity. The 
last account tells me that your wife and little 
daughter are also kind enough to attend to 
his wants. With my gratitude and joy that 



170 The Prison Life 

even in such a dungeon, separated from all 
his earthly ties he is not alone, comes the sad 
memory that I can do nothing but write to 
say how I love them for their goodness ; how 
I long to see their faces before my eyes are 
closed in death! I am not alone in offering 
to them loving thanks — our whole people join 
me in offering acknowledgments to them and 
to you. Many little children, besides my own 
poor little ones, have asked me if I had a like- 
ness of your family, that they might form an 
idea of those whose kindness has become to 
them household words. Still no word of com- 
forting response comes to me from you. I 
will not annoy you by importunities ; but 
pray that we may meet at some future day, 
when such painful circumstances as now sur- 
round me may have been swept away by God's 
christianizing grace. 

When " martial faith and courtesy " may 
again dictate the action of those who now 
hold my suffering husband " a prisoner of 
war," but treat him like a felon, a heart full 
of gratitude, overflowing in earnest, constant 



of Jefferson Davis, i ; i 

prayers for you, and for your dear wife, and 
little Annie, is all I have to offer; and 
these are ever present to 

Yours most gratefully, 

Varina Davis. 

July i^th. — Called on Mr. Davis, accom- 
panied by Captain Grill, 3d Pennsylvania 
Artillery, Officer of the Day. Found him 
extremely weak, and growing more alarmed 
about his sight, which was failing rapidly. 
The phenomenon had occurred to him of 
seeing all objects double, due chiefly to his 
nervous debility and the over-taxation of con- 
stant reading. Prescribed stimulants inter- 
nally — weak brandy and water with his meals 
to aid digestion — and a stimulating w^ash. 

Some remarks he had seen in one of the 
New York papers led Mr. Davis to speak of 
the difficulties which had surrounded his 
administration. *^ 

His Cabinet had been selected during the 
formation of the Provisional Government at 
Montgomery, when there were but seven 



172 The Prison Life 

States in the Confederacy from which to 
select or accept Secretaries, and when all 
things were in dire confusion — even those of 
farthest sight in public affairs with but little 
prevision of what lay before them. Georgia, 
as the largest State represented in the Pro- 
visional Congress, claimed the portfolio of 
State and recommended Mr. Toombs — a man 
of great natural force and capacity, but a 
destroyer, not a builder up ; a man of restless 
nature, a born Jacobin, though with honest 
intentions. Alabama, as the second State, 
claimed the portfolio of War, and nominated 
Pope Walker for the position — a gentleman 
of excellent intentions, but wholly without 
the requisite experience or capacities for so 
vast a trust. South Carolina placed Mr. 
Memminger in the Treasury, and while he 
respected the man, the utter failure of Con- 
federate finance was the failure of the cause. 
Had Mr. Memminger acted promptly on the 
proposition of depositing cotton in Europe 
and holding it there for two years as a basis . 
for their currency, their circulating medium 



of yeffersoii Davis, • 173 

might have maintained itself at par to the 
closing day of the struggle ; and that in 
itself would have insured victory. Louisiana 
sent Benjamin, the ablest and most faithful 
member of his advisory council ; a man 
who realized that industry is the mistress of 
success/and who had no personal aspirations, 
no wishes that were not subordinate to the 
prosperity of the cause. In the early part of 
the war, Benjamin furnished a parallel to Mr. 
Seward, both believing and avowing that the 
impending crisis would not last longer than 
sixty or ninety days, though Benjamin relaxed 
no labor or preparation on that account. 
Texas had the Postal Department in the per- 
son of Mr. Reagan, who was a plain, strong 
man, of good common sense and a good 
heart, faithful to the cause with zealous fidel- 
ity, and faithful to the last, though endowed 
with no peculiar administrative abilities, and 
one of those who had not labored to precipi- 
tate secession, though accepting it heartily 
as a political necessity when it came. The 
Navy Department went to Florida, and was 



174 ^/^^ Priso7i Life 

filled by Mr. Mallory, who had large experi- 
ence in the Naval Committee of the United 
States Senate. It was complained that there 
had been remissness in this department, no 
Confederate war vessel having been com- 
menced until eiofht or nine months after the 
act of secession. In these complaints there 
was doubtless some truth ; but after an event 
happened, prophesying was cheap. No one 
at that day could have foreseen the extent or 
prolongation of the struggle, and the belief 
was common, if not natural, that the necessi- 
ties of Europe would compel foreign nations 
to raise the blockade, and finally bring the 
naval resources of England and France to 
the aid of his people. 

Being interested by what Mr. Davis said of 
the failure of the Confederate currency as the 
failure of the cause, and of some scheme by 
which it might have been prevented, I ex- 
pressed my curiosity and ventured to request 
some explanation, as there appeared to me no 
manner in which Confederate paper could 
have been sustained at par. 



of yeffersofi Davis. 175 

Mr. Davis replied that one rule of his life 
was, never to express regret for the inevitable : 
to let the dead bury its dead in regard to all 
political hopes that were not realized. Fire 
is not quenched with tow, nor the past to be 
remedied by lamentations. It would, how- 
ever, have been possible, in his judgment, to 
have kept the currency of his people good 
for gold, or very nearly so, during the entire 
struggle ; and had this been done, the con- 
trast, if nothing else, would have reduced 
United States securities to zero, and so ter- 
minated the contest. The plan urged upon 
Mr. Memminger was as follows — a plan Mr. 
Davis privately approved, but had not time to 
study and take the responsibility of directing, 
until too late : — 

At the time of secession there were not less 
than three million bales of cotton in the 
South — plantation bales, of 400 pounds weight 
each. These the Secretary of the Treasury 
recommended to buy from the planters, who 
were then willing, and even eager, to sell to 
the government, at ten cents per pound of 



1 76 The Prison Life 

Confederate currency. These three million 
bales were to be rushed off to Europe before 
the blockade was of any efficiency, and there 
held for one or two years, until the price 
reached not less than 70 or 80 cents per 
pound — and we all know it reached mucli 
higher during the war. This would have 
given a cash basis in Europe of not less than 
a thousand million dollars in gold, and all 
securities drawn against this balance in 
bank would maintain par value. Such a sum 
would have more than sufficed all the needs 
of the Confederacy during the war ; would 
have sufficed, with economic management, for 
a war of twice the actual duration ; and this 
"^evidence of Southern prosperity and stability 
could not but have acted powerfully on the 
minds, the securities and the avarice of the 
New England rulers of the North. He was far 
from reproaching Mr. Memminger. The 
situation was new. No one could have fore- 
seen the course of events. When too late 
the wisdom of the proposed measure was 
realized, but the inevitable " too late " was 



of ye/ferson Davis. i 7 7 

interposed. The blockade had become too 
stringent, for one reason, and the planters had 
lost their, pristine confidence in Confederate 
currency. When we might have put silver in 
the purse, we did not put it there. When we 
had only silver on the tongue, our promises 
were forced to become excessive. 

I asked how Mr. Memminger had obtained 
prominence in so aristocratic a State as South 
Carolina, the report being that he was a found- 
ling born with little claim to either wealth or 
name. Mr. Davis said he knew nothing of 
the matter, and immediately turned away the 
conversation, appearing displeased. 

When Mr. Benjamin was made Secretary of 
War, Mr. Davis continued — Mr. Walker hav- 
ing proved a failure — Congress was pleased to 
blame him for the successes of General Burn- 
side at Roanoke Island, and so forth ; events 
which no human activity or foresight, with the 
forces at his command, could have averted. 
Congress in some respects was slow to provide 
against reverses, but never lacking in prompt- 
ness to find a scapegoat. From the first, there 

8* 



178 The Prison Life 

was a strong party in the South — or rather in 
the Southern Congress and political life — 
arrayed against his administration. They 
never deemed it wise to attack him personally 
or directly, for his people were devotedly and 
nobly faithful to the representative of their 
selection ; but the plan was to assail any man 
or measure in whom or which Mr. Davis was 
supposed — often erroneously — to take special 
interest. He himself was much to blame for 
this, perhaps — his fidelity to friendship and 
the natural combativeness of his nature, 
prompting him to assume as personal to him- 
self, any assaults directed against men or 
measures for whose appointment or origination 
he was in any degree responsible. This was 
a fault of his temperament, but each man must 
accept himself as he stands, and that man does 
well who makes out of himself the best pos- 
sible. 

Toombs, even when in the Cabinet, had 
been impracticable and restless. Out of it he 
became an active malcontent, and was power- 
fully supported in every perverse and perni- 



of yefferson Davis. 1 79 

cious suggestion by Governor Brown, oi 
Georgia. Vice-President Stephens had lent 
the government no assistance, continually 
holding himself aloof from Richmond — per 
haps on account of ill health ; but certainly 
his health must have been very wretched in- 
deed, if poorer than that of Mr. Davis, during 
many of his most trying and laborious months. 
Be the cause what it might, however, the ab- 
sence, if not apathy, of Mr. Stephens, had been 
an element of weakness, and led him to be re- 
garded by the malcontents as a friend and 
pillar of their cause. In South Carolina, there 
was the Rhett faction; never at home save 
when in the attitude of contradiction ; men 
whose Hves were expended in the negative, 
and who often recalled to his mind the con- 
tradictory gentleman described by Sydney 
Smith, who, when he had no one else to quar- 
rel with, threw up his window at night for the 
purpose of contradicting the watchman who 
was shouting, " Two o'clock — all well." The 
only open assailant he had in Congress was 
Senator Foote, of his own State — a man of no 



i8o The Prison Life ' 

account or credit ; an inveterate place-hunter 
and mere politician, who appeared laboring 
under a constitutional inability either to see 
anything correctly, or to report correctly what 
he had seen. 

Of Stonewall Jackson, Mr. Davis spoke 
with the utmost tenderness, and some touch 
of reverential feeling, bearing witness to his 
earnest and pathetic piety, his singleness of 
aim, his immense energy as an executive 
officer, and the loyalty of his nature, making 
obedience the first of all duties. " He rose 
every morning at three," said Mr. Davis ; " per- 
formed his devotions for half an hour, and 
then went booming along at the head of his 
command, which came to be called 'Jackson's 
foot cavalry,' from the velocity of their move- 
ments. He had the faculty, or rather gift, of 
exciting and holding the love and' confidence 
of his men to an unbounded degree, even 
though the character of his campaigning im- 
posed on them more hardships than on any 
other troops in the service. Good soldiers 
care not for their individual sacrifices when 



J 



of j(]fferson IJavis. i8i 

adequate results can be shown ; and these 
General Jackson never lacked. Hard fight- 
ing, hard marching, hard fare, the strictest 
discipline — all these men will bear, if visibly 
approaching the goal of their hopes. They 
want to get done with the war, back to their 
homes and families ; and their instinct soon 
teaches them which commander is pursuing 
the right means to accomplish these results. 
Jackson was a singularly ungainly man on 
horseback, and had many peculiarities of tem- 
per, amounting to violent idiosyncrasies ; but 
everything in his nature, though here and 
there uncouth, was noble. Even in the heat 
of action, and when most exposed, he might 
be seen throwing up his hands in prayer. For 
glory he lived long enough," continued Mr. 
Davis with much emotion ; " and if this result 
had to come, it was the Divine mercy that 
removed him. He fell like the eagle, his own 
feather on the shaft that was dripping with 
his life-blood. In his death the Confederacy 
lost an eye and arm, our only consolation 
being that the final summons could have 



1 82 The Prison Life 

reached no soldier more prepared to accept 
it joyfully. Jackson was not of a san- 
guine turn, always privately anticipating the 
worst, that the better might be more 
welcome." 



of Jefferson Davis, 183 



CHAPTER XII. 

Mr. Davis seriously IlL — Restrictions on Cor- 
respo7idence with his Wife. — Clement C. Clay. 
— A Rampart Interview. — Religious Phase 
of Mr. Davis s Character. 

July 20th. — Called on Mr. Davis, Captain 
Korte, 3d Pennsylvania Artillery, being Offi- 
cer of the Day, and, of course, my companion. 
Was requested to call by Major-General Miles, 
who had received report that prisoner was 
seriously ill. 

Found Mr. Davis in a very critical state ; 
his nervous debility extreme ; his mind more 
despondent than ever heretofore ; his appetite 
gone ; complexion livid, and pulse denoting 
deep prostration of all the physical energies. 
Was much alarmed, and realized with painful 
anxiety the responsibilities of my position. If 
he were to die in prison, and without trial, 



1 8 1 The Prison Life 

subject to such severities as had been inflict- 
ed on his attenuated frame, the world would 
form unjust conclusions, but conclusions with 
enough color to pass them into history. It 
seemed to me, let me frankly confess, due to 
the honor of America, and the future glory 
of our struggle for national existence, that this 
result should not happen. 

Mr. Davis asked me could nothing be done 
to better his condition, or secure him the jus- 
tice of a trial before death. The effort of his 
people to establish a country had failed, and 
they had no country now but America. It 
was for the honor of America, not less than 
for his own, and for justice to his cause, that 
he pleaded. 

Assured Mr. Davis that no effort of care or 
such skill as I possessed should be wanting 
for his benefit. Then commenced conversa- 
tion on various topics, seeking to divert his 
mind from the afflictions preying on it. 

Talking of the Confederate flag and the 
various flags under which the regiments of 
each State fought, I mentioned having once 



of yeffersofi Davis. 185 

seen a curious practical realization of the flag 
of South Carolina — the palmetto-tree and 
rattlesnake. 

The day after the success of Admiral Du 
Pont at Port Royal, and the landing of Sher- 
man's expedition on Hilton Head, I had 
ridden out in company with General Horatio 
G. Wright to an abandoned cavalry camj) of 
the expelled troops. There, twisted around 
the trunk of a palmetto-tree, and held in his 
place round it by ligatures of reeds, was a 
dead rattlesnake, the largest I had ever seen, 
some eight feet long, and probably nearly a 
hundred pounds weight. It had undoubtedly 
been placed there in sport by some of the cav- 
alry as an emblem of the flag of their State. 

" It was a good omen for you," said Mr. 
Davis, with a faint smile, and then commenced 
talking of the snakes of the Southern coast. 
He mentioned as curious that the deer, 
usually the most timid of animals, or so popu- 
larly regarded, was the deadliest enemy of the 
rattlesnake. Wherever and whenever finding 
one in the woods near the coast, or on the 



1 86 The Prison Life 

grassy sand-heaps which the snake so loved, 
the deer commenced assailing it acrimoni- 
ously with its sharp and powerful though 
dainty fore-hoofs. These it would job or dig 
into the rattlesnake's head, half stunning it 
the first blow. Then the deer would graze a 
few moments — with a wary eye on the snake, 
however, repeating its stabs with its sharp 
hoofs until its enemy expired. The negroes 
accounted for the immunity of the deer in 
these encounters by the fact that its delicate 
forelegs, being nearly all skin and bone, were 
the only parts exposed within reach of the 
rattlesnake, and had too little blood or flesh 
in them to convey the virus. It was not true 
that this snake could project himself the full 
length of his coil. He could only coil up 
half his length and throw that forward. They 
are slow and of little danger to men or dogs, 
unless suddenly trodden upon. No instance 
of their attacking a man, unless attacked, was 
on record along the Southern coast. They 
like the cool sea-breezes, and feed on rabbits 
and squirrels, which they have great dexterity 



of yefferso7i Davis. 187 

in catching. Mr. Davis had never heard of 
any specific cure for their bite save when the 
part could be instantly amputated before the 
poison spread. Powerful doses of whiskey 
were a remedy in some cases — perhaps on 
the principle of the more powerful poison 
expelling the weaker. He had known a case, 
when serving on the frontier, in which this 
remedy had proved worse than the disease. 
A very worthy sergeant of the ist Dragoons 
had been formerly of intemperate habits, but 
had reformed and been perfectly abstemious 
for several years. Some kind of a snake bit 
him — probably one whose bite was not mortal, 
though painful — and heavy doses of whiskey 
were at once prescribed. This re-aroused the 
slumbering devil, and in less than six months 
after the sergeant, degraded to the ranks, died 
of mania apotu in the guard-house. Drunken- 
ness is the great vice of soldiers, and worked 
much misery with, his people. The social 
glass, carried to excess, becomes a pair of 
spectacles through which men gaze into the 
bottomless pit. Mr. Davis then referred 



1 88 The Prison Life 

jocosely to the old form of commissary 
requisitions for whiskey when he was in the 
army : " So many barrels of whiskey to cure 
snake-bites." This was because whiskey was 
forbidden In army stores, unless to be used 
for medicinal purposes. He believed ten 
thousand soldiers had "seen snakes," as the 
phrase ran, through this agency, for the one 
who had been cured of a snake-bite. 

The mocassin-snake, which is also very 
poisonous — though not so deadly on the 
southern coast-line as In the interior — seldom 
grows to be over three feet in length, and Is 
thicker and slower of motion than the rattle- 
snake. The chicken or house-snake often 
grows to great size, fully as large as the rattle- 
snake, but is not dangerously poisonous, 
though Its fangs create an unpleasant pustule, 
death occasionally resulting when they hap- 
pen to pierce a vein. They are swift, feed on 
birds and poultry of all kinds, and have great- 
er power of convolution and contortion than 
any other snakes, this being necessary to en- 
able them to climb trees in pursuit of their 



of Jefferson Davis, 189 

prey with the requisite quickness. Children 
often attacked these snakes when finding them 
curled up in the crevices of barns or abandon- 
ed houses, rarely failing to kill them. - The 
mocassin-snake is rather more omnivorou. 
than the others, feeding upon frogs, toads, 
birds, beetles, rabbits, or whatever it can 
catch. 

Mr. Davis said when he had last been aut 
on the ramparts he had met Mr. C. C. Clay, 
similarly walking under guard. Clay was 
looking wretchedly, and seeing him made Mr. 
Davis realize more acutely his own humiliating 
position. Men at sea in a ship never realize 
how forlorn and frail the vessel is they are on 
board, until their counterpart in some closely 
passing vessel is brought under notice. Ab- 
sorbed in exercise and the emotions of the 
scene, he had previously failed to realize his sit- 
uation, with an officer at his side as custodian, 
and four bayonets pacing behind him to secure 
that he should make no effort to escape. The 
moment Mr. Clay passed, his own situation 
stood revealed ; and nothing but his strong con- 



190 The Prison Life 

viction that to remain in his cell would be equi- 
valent to suicide, could induce him to parade 
again in the same manner. As he passed Mr. 
Clay^ they exchanged a few words in French, 
nothing more than the compliments of the 
day and an inquiry for each others health; 
but it seemed this had alarmed the officer, who 
did not understand the language, Mr. Clay not 
being permitted to pass him again, but being 
marched off to another part of the ramparts. 
Clay was naturally delicate, of an atrabilious 
type, and his appearance denoted that he must 
be suffering severely. 

Replied that I had been attending Mr. Clay, 
and saw nothing in his state to occasion alarm. 
He had a tendency to asthma, but that was a 
long-lived disease. Mr. Davis inquired how 
Clay was fed. Replied that at first he had 
received soldiers' rations, but latterly, his con- 
dition demanding it, had been fed from the 
hospital. Mr. Davis expressed much sympa- 
thy for his fellow-sufferer, begging me to do 
whatever I professionally could for his relief, 
and to hold up his hands. Let me here re- 



of Jefferson Davis, 191 

mark that, despite a certain exterior cynicism 
of manner, no patient has ever crossed my 
path, who, suffering so much himself, appeared 
to feel so warmly and tenderly for others. 
Sickness, as a general rule, is sadly selfish ; its 
own pains and infirmities occupying too much 
of its thoughts. With Mr. Davis, however, 
the rule did not work, or rather he was an ex- 
ception calling attention to its general truth. 

Prisoner complained bitterly of the restric- 
tions imposed by General Miles on his corre- 
spondence with his wife ; certain subjects, 
and those perhaps of most interest, being for- 
bidden to both. The convicts in State pri- 
sons were allowed this liberty unimpeded, or 
only subject to the supervision of the Chaplain, 
whose scrutiny had a religious and kindly 
character — that of a Father Confessor. His 
letters, on the contrary, had to be sent open 
to General Miles, and from him, he under- 
stood, similarly open to the Attorney-General. 
What unbosoming of confidence — mutual 
griefs, mutual hopes, the interchange of ten- 
derest sympathies — was possible, or would be 



192 The Prison Life 

delicate under such a system! He pictured 
idle young staff-officers here, or yet more piti- 
ful clerks in the Law Department at Washing 
ton, grinning over any confessions of pain, or 
terms of endearment, he might be tempted to 
use ; and this thought embittered the pleasure 
such correspondence might otherwise have 
conferred. The relationship of husband and 
wife was the inner vestibule of the temple — 
the holy of holies — in poor human life ; and 
who could expose its secrets, or lay his heart 
bare on his sleeve, for such daws to peck at ? 
Even criminals condemned to death for hein- 
ous crimes, were allowed not only free corre- 
spondence with their wives, but interviews at 
which no jailor stood within earshot. What 
possible public danger could there be from 
allowing such letters to pass without scrutiny .? 
Time will set all these petty tyrannies in 
their true light. He that first pleadeth his 
own cause seems justified; but his neighbor 
cometh and searcheth him. If the privilege 
were ever abused — if anything he wrote to 
his wife were published to the detriment of 



of Jefferson Davis, 193 

the government, or tending to disturb the 
peace, what easier than to say, " This privi- 
lege has been abused, and must cease ? " 

July 2isL — Visited prisoner with Captain 
Evans, 3d Pennsylvania Artillery, Officer of 
the Day. Mr. Davis better, but still in bed ; 
the Bible and Prayer-Book his usual compa- 
nions. Complained that his irritation of sight 
made reading painful ; but there was conso- 
lation for greater sacrifice in what he read. 

There was no affectation of devoutness or 
asceticism in my patient ; but every opportu- 
nity I had of seeing him, convinced me more 
deeply of his sincere religious convictions. 
He was fond of referring to passages of Scrip- 
ture, comparing text with text ; dwelling on 
the divine beauty of the imagery, and the 
wonderful adaptation of the whole to every 
conceivable phase and stage of human life. 
Nothing that any man's individual experience, 
however strange, could bring home to him, 
Init had been previously foretold and describ- 
ed, with its proper lesson or promise of hope, 
in the sacred volume. It was the only abso- 

9 



194 ^^^ Prison Life 

lute wisdom, reaching all varieties of exist- 
ence, because comprehending the whole ; and, 
besides its inspired universal knowledge, all 
the learning of humanity was but foolishness. 
The Psalms were his favorite portion of the 
Word, and had always been. Evidence of 
their divine origin was inherent in their text. 
Only an intelligence that held the life-threads 
of the entire human family could have thus 
pealed forth in a single cry every wish, joy, 
fear, exultation, hope, passion, and sorrow of 
the human heart. There were moments, while 
speaking on religious subjects, in which Mr. 
Davis impressed me more than any professor 
of Christianity I had ever heard. There was 
a vital earnestness in his discourse ; a clear, 
almost passionate grasp in his faith ; and the 
thought would frequently recur, that a belief 
capable of consoling such sorrows as his, 
possessed and thereby evidenced, a reality — a 
substance — which no sophistry of the infidel 
could discredit. 

To this phase of the prisoner's character I 
have heretofore rather avoided calling atten- 



of Jefferson Davis. 195 

tlon for several reasons, prominent of which 
though an unworthy one, was this : My know, 
ledge that many, if not a majority of my read 
ers, would approach the character of Mr 
Davis with a preconception of dislike and dis 
trust, and a consequent fear that an earlier 
forcing on their attention of this phase of his 
character, before their opinion had been modi- 
fied by such glimpses as are herein given, 
might only challenge a base and false impu- 
tation of hypocrisy against one than whom, 
in my judgment, no more devout exemplar of 
Christian faith, and its value as a consolation, 
now lives, whatever may have been his poli- 
tical crimes or errors. 

And here, dropping the note-book a moment, 
let me say a few words in my own character — 
a reflection continually brought to my notice 
by each day's further acquaintance with Mr. 
Davis : 

Is it not true that the chief mistakes and 
prejudices of public opinion come from our not 
understanding — not seeking to understand — 
the true motives and characters of the men to 



196 The Prison Life 

whom we are opposed ? Blind and hot-headed 
partisanship, speaking in the haste of the press 
and the heat of the rostrum, accepts without 
evidence whatever epithet of infamy can be 
applied to the object of its dislike ; no storie? 
of guilt or folly that can degrade or rendei 
hateful the foeman we stand arrayed against, 
can be too monstrous to find believers, at least 
while the struggle lasts. But in a few years, 
as we recede from the convulsed and frenzied 
period of the strife, w^e grow to be ashamed of 
the malignant delusions which have so grossly 
cheated our senses ; and before history takes 
up the pen to record her final judgment, the 
world will be willing to concede that the man 
was not utterly bad — had, in fact, great re- 
deeming virtues — who was our most promi- 
nent foe ; and that no movement so vast, and 
eliciting such intense devotion on the part of 
its partisans as the late Southern rebellion, 
could have grown up into its gigantic propor- 
tions without containing many elements of 
truth and good, which it may profit future 
ages to study attentively, though the means 



of yefferson Davis. 197 

taken for the assertion of its principles were 
false, criminal, and only fraught with disaster. 
To anticipate a little what must be the in- 
evitable course of events, to give the public 
such opportunity as was given the writer of 
judging Jefferson Davis from a clearer stand- 
point, and to save the present generation of 
the North from the fatal error of continuing 
to regard and treat as a common criminal the 
chief actor opposed to us in a struggle the 
most gigantic the world has ever seen, and 
with which history will ring for centuries to 
come — if these objects can be attained, the 
author will not have toiled in vain. All the 
crimes that an evil ingenuity has yet been able 
to impute to this man, are as new-fallen snow 
when brought in contrast with the fabrications 
of the English and European press in regard 
to murderous and incestuous proclivities of 
the first Napoleon during the great wars in 
which that Captain involved the elder conti- 
nent. But such is not now the judgment of 
him, either in England or in the world's his- 
tory — nor will history consent to regard Mr 



198 The Priso7i Life 

Davis in the odious, monstous, or contempt- 
ible light which has been, for the last five 
years, the only one in which the necessities 
and passions of our recent struggle would per- 
mit him to be presented to our gaze. 



of Jefferson Davis. 199 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Southern Migration to Mexico. — Mr, Cal 
/w747ts Memory vindicated from one Charge. 
— Tribute to Albert Sidney Johnston. — Fail- 
ure of Southern Iron-clads and Loss of the 
Mississippi. 

July 2\th. — Called on Mr. Davis, accompa- 
nied by Captain Korte, 3d Pennsylvania 
Artillery, Officer of the Day. Found pri- 
soner still very feeble, but said he could not 
resist the temptation to crawl out in such 
beautiful weather, even at the cost of the 
degrading guards who dogged his steps. 
Captain Korte absent during greater part of 
this interview, relieving guard in the case- 
mates of Clay and other prisoners. Some 
officers of the day often left me alone with 
prisoner for this purpose; others remained 



2 GO The Prison Life 

close to us as we conversed; but as Mr. Davis 
always spoke in a subdued manner, and my 
replies were given in the usual confidential 
tone of a doctor consulting a patient, the 
presence or absence of the Officer of the 
Day made little difference. 

Mr. Davis spoke of the folly and something 
worse of those Southern leaders who had fled 
to Mexico. It was an act of cowardice — an 
evasion of duty only to be excelled by suicide. 
They had been instrumental in bringing the 
evils of military subjugation on the people, 
and should remain to share their burdens. 
The great masses of the people were rooted 
to the soil, and could not, and should not, fly. 
The first duty of the men who had been in 
command during the struggle was, to remain 
faithful fellow-sufferers with the rank and file. 
By doing so they could yet exercise a moral 
and intellectual, if not political, weight against 
the schemers of rapine and oppression now 
swarming over the Southern country; while 
by deserting, they abandon helpless ignorance 
to the sway of powerful craft, and confessed 



of ycJferso7t Davis, 201 

judgment to whatever charges might be 
brought against them. The scheme of a 
political settlement in Mexico was preposter- 
ous in practice, though tempting to wounded 
pride. Settlements and colonies were gov- 
erned, or governed themselves, by laws of 
material interest, considerations of profit and 
loss ; and no settlers could be imagined less 
fitted for the requirements of a new colony 
than a body of embittered politicians, still 
sore and smarting: from a conflict in which 
they had incurred defeat. Patience, indomi- 
table industry and self-denial were the necessi- 
ties of every new settlement; and these — 
even were the colonists of a more suitable 
class — could scarcely be continued in Mexico, 
where languor, indolence and ease, are con- 
stituent portions of the climate. 

Remarked to Mr. Davis that I had always 
regarded the filibustering expeditions of 
Lopez against Cuba, and Walker in Nica- 
ragua, as Southern projects for the acquire 
ment of more territory and larger representa- 
tion in Congress, to balance the increasing 

9* 



202 The Prison Life 

free States of the North and West. If his 
opinions against the feasibiUty of Southern 
men colonizing Mexico had been general with 
his people, how came the Lopez, and more 
especially the Walker expeditions, to find 
favor in his section, Walker proposing an 
American settlement so much nearer the 
equator? The desire for Cuba could be 
understood ; its enormous slave population, 
wealth, and command of the Gulf, forming 
sufficient attractions. 

Mr. Davis replied there had been a general 
desire in the South for Cuba, but none of any 
consequence for Central America. Neither 
expedition, however, had been supported by 
any organized party of his people. The 
Walker foray in Nicaragua had its main 
origin in a quarrel between two new New 
York commercial houses — those of Governor 
Morgan and Cornelius Vanderbilt, as he 
understood — for the profits of the Transit 
Company across the Isthmus. The expedi- 
tion against Cuba was favored by General 
Quitman, and had so much of direct Southern 



of yefferso7i Davis. 203 

sanction as might be drawn from the General's 
representative position — which was deservedly 
of the highest — but no more. It was fostered 
on the statements and promises of Cuban 
planters anxious for annexation, and promising 
a liberal cooperation of men and means the 
moment a landing was effected. These pro- 
mises went off in smoke, as do all the 
promises of a tropical and luxurious people 
for active exertion ; and so the matter ended. 

In regard to his remarks about settlements 
in Mexico, it was not his intention — the 
reverse, in fact — to be understood as sug- 
gesting that his people could not, or will not 
colonize and reclaim the greater part or the 
whole of that country. His thought merely 
was, that a settlement of self-exiled politicians 
and soldiers, acting under the Impulse of 
anger, and with no fixed purposes or habits 
of Industry, and but little capital In money or 
materials, formed a poor basis for any coloni- 
zation project of permanent prosperity. His 
people needed more territory and would con- 
tinue to need It, their line of expansion 



204 -I li(i Prison Life 

running towards Mexico ; but this would have 
to come by natural processes of growth, 
perhaps assisted, when time was ripe, by 
some such political and military movements 
as added Texas to the country. Timely 
blossom gives timely fruit, and we can no 
more quicken the healthy growth of a nation 
by artificial aid than the growth of a child. 
If restraints be imposed on natural growth, 
violence may be useful to cast off such 
restraints, but beyond this can only serve to 
retard expansion. 

Same afternoon, joined Mr. Davis, who was 
seated with Major-General Miles on the south 
front of the ramparts, the prisoner seeming to 
prefer this aspect of the compass. 

General Miles remarked that the fortifica- 
tion known as the Rip Raps had already occu- 
pied much time, and must have cost the gov- 
ernment vast sums of money. 

Mr. Davis replied, giving full statistics on 
the subject up to the period he had ceased to 
be Secretary of War, adding, that many years 
ago it had approached completion, but had 



of yefferso7i Davis, 205 

slowly settled down until the second tier of 
embrasures reached the sea-level, owing to a 
spreading of the artificial rock-island on which 
it has been built. As it was so nearly finished, 
and might be useful in case of a foreign war. 
he supposed government would now complete 
its armament and maintain it as a permanent 
fort ; but if the matter were to do over again, 
a couple of iron-clads would serve all its pur- 
poses better, at less than a tenth of its expense. 

General Miles observed, interrogatively, that 
it was reported John C. Calhoun had made 
much money by speculations, or favoring the 
speculations of his friends, connected with this 
work. 

In a moment Mr. Davis started to his feet, 
betraying much indignation by his excited 
manner and flushed cheek. It was a trans- 
figuration of friendly emotion, the feeble and 
wasted invalid and prisoner suddenly forget- 
ting his bonds, forgetting his debility, and 
ablaze with eloquent anger against this injus- 
tice to the memory of one whom he loved and 
reverenced. Mr. Calhoun, he said, lived a 



2o6 T/ic Prison Life 

whole atmosphere abovo any sordid or dis- 
honest thought — was of a nature to which even 
a mean act was impossible. It was said in 
every Northern paper that he (Mr. Davis) had 
carried with him five millions in gold when 
quitting Richmond — money pilfered from the 
treasury of the Confederate States — and there 
was just as much truth in that as in these im- 
putations against Calhoun. One of the worst 
signs of the times is the looseness with which 
imputations of dishonesty are made and ac- 
cepted against public men in eminent station. 
They who spit against the wind, spit in their 
own faces, and such charges come back to 
soil the men who make them. If an indivi- 
dual has any proof of dishonesty against a 
public man, he should bring his charges in 
due form, and have an open trial ; but when 
an entire people, or their great majority, 
greedily accept and believe any unsupported 
imputation of corruption against a distin- 
guished statesman or other officer, it argues 
corruption in their own minds, and that they 
suspect it in others because conscious it 



of Jefferson Davis, 207 

would be their own course if endowed with 
power. 

Mr. Davis then entered upon an explana- 
tion, too minute for me to follow, of the man- 
ner in which these charges against Mr. Cal- 
houn arose from the malice of some specula- 
tors, between whose avarice and the public 
treasury Mr. Calhoun had interposed his pure 
and powerful influence. Calhoun was a states- 
man, a philosopher, in the true sense of that 
grossly abused term — an enthusiast of perfect 
liberty in representative and governmental 
action. Wrong, of course, in his conclusions, 
the opponents of his theory were free to 
judge him; but Mr. Davis believed the hands 
of George Washington not more free from 
the filthiness of bribes, than were those of the 
departed statesman who had been thus libel- 
led. Every public officer who crosses the 
schemes of rogues must prepare to pay this 
penalty. There was not a General in either 
army of the recent war who was not accused 
by sutlers and camp-followers of having made 
fortunes from the exactions which their pow- 



2o8 The Prison Life 

ers allowed them to impose. While the astro- 
nomer dwells in his tower watching the stars, 
bats may breed and slimy things crawl at will 
in the foundation-story of his edifice. 

August \th. — Visited Mr. Davis with Cap- 
tain Gusson, 3d Pennsylvania Artillery, Offi- 
cer of the Day. Found prisoner improving. 
Mentioned that I had spent the previous day 
on the wreck of the frigate Congress, sunk by 
the Merrimac, describing minutely, at his re- 
quest, the state of the vessel, and the process 
of elevating sunken vessels by building' a 
bulkhead, etc., and the use of powerful pumps. 
Mr. Davis appeared much interested, saying 
the Congress had fought gallantly, and that 
it was in consequence of injuries to the prow 
of the Merrimac from her shot, and not owing 
to the attack of the Monitor, that the Merri- 
mac had been compelled to retire. These 
injuries started a fatal leak, which the weight 
of armor rendered it impossible to cure ; 
and this was the true cause of the vessel's 
final failure. Mr. Davis also spoke of the 
continued advances in engineering skill and 



of yefferson Davis, 209 

mechanical contrivance. When the Royal 
George capsized, she went to the bottom 
uninjured, and would have been in perfect 
order had such means for raising sunken ves- 
sels been then known. The British Govern- 
ment had made great exertions, and offered 
large rewards, he believed, to accomplish this 
result, but without success ; and only such small 
articles, or piecemeal parts, had been regained 
as the divers could fasten ropes to, and cause 
to be hauled up. With the exception of the 
Merrwiac, no armed vessel of the South had 
enjoyed a fortunate career, and hers was brief. 
They were either captured, like the Atlanta, 
while trying to run out to sea, or destroyed 
by our war vessels and gun-boats while still 
imperfect and unprepared for the combat. 
The capture of New Orleans was a great 
calamity to his cause, but mainly injurious 
from its sacrifice of the inchoate iron-clads of 
tlie Mississippi. With the mouth and head- 
waters of this vital river in our possession, 
no energy could have warded off the result 
beyond a certain time, if the North, with its 



2IO The Prison Life 

superior resources of manufacture and pre- 
ponderance of population, should see fit to 
persist. Pemberton made a splendid defence 
of Vicksburg. He had been blamed for 
remaining there, but this was the last hope of 
saving the Mississippi and keeping open the 
beef, and other commissary supplies, of the 
trans-Mississippi department. 

Had General Albert Sidney Johnston lived, 
Mr. Davis was of opinion, our success down 
the Mississippi would have been fatally check- 
ed at Corinth. This officer best realized his 
ideal of a perfect commander — large in view, 
discreet in council, silent as to his own plans, 
observant and penetrative of the enemy's, sud- 
den and impetuous in action, but of a nerve 
and balance of judgment which no heat of 
danger or complexity of manoeuvre could up- 
set or bewilder. All that Napoleon said of 
Dessaix and Kleber, save the slovenly habits 
of one of them, might be combined and truth- 
fully said of Albert Sidney Johnston. John- 
ston had been opposed to locating the Confed- 
erate Capital at Richmond, alleging that it 



of Jefferson Davis, 2 1 i 

would involve fighting on the exterior of our 
circle, in lieu of the centre: and that as the 
struggle would finally be for whatever point 
was the capital, it was ill-advised to go so far 
north, thus shortening the enemy's line of 
transportation and supply. Whatever value 
this criticism may have had in a military point 
of view, added Mr. Davis, there were political 
necessities connected with Virginia which left 
no choice in the matter. It was a bold court- 
ing of the issue, clearly planting our standard 
in front of the enemy's line and across his 
path. Such reflections are of no use now, 
concluded Mr. Davis, and the Spaniards tell 
us when a sorrow is asleep not to waken it. 

Talking of the financial future of the South, 
he believed negro labor requisite for the pro- 
fitable working of the rice, sugar, and cotton 
crops. These staples peculiarly demanded 
the industry of this race. Germans, or 
Irishmen, could grow tobacco with profit, 
and for a few years, perhaps, cultivate the 
other staples; but the climatic influences 
would overpower their constitutions, and the 



212 The Prison Life 

rice-fields, in particular, prove deadly to any 
laborers but the black. 

To this I opposed my own experience on 
the Sea Islands of the Southern coast, where 
I had cognizance of the sanitary condition of 
an average of fifteen thousand soldiers, black 
and white, and of all nationalities, for nearly 
three years ; and the result had been that 
negroes, to the " manor born," had suffered 
more than any others, white or black, with the 
exception of the troops from Maine. The 
work for all had been of the hardest and 
heaviest ; guard-duty night and day along 
creeks, lagoons and swamps ; incessant toil 
in the trenches and on the works ; the 
severest portion of these labors having been 
performed on Morris Island, in the month of 
July. The Southern negro refugees — men, 
women, and children, living in villages on 
Port Royal, St. Helena, Edisto, Ladies, and 
other islands — suffered more from the fevers 
of the climate than our black troops from the 
North, and far more than our white troops, 
who were the healthiest in the whole armies 



of Jefferson Davis, 213 

of the Union, with the exception of ihose 
from the inland mountains of Maine, and 
perhaps New Hampshire. 

Mr. Davis thought this very possible, but 
the mortality of the plantation negroes arose 
from the absence of restraint, and their 
inability to guide themselves. It was to the 
master's interest that they should be kept in 
health by regular hours, wholesome food, and 
proper periods of rest. The license of 
sudden freedom proved too much for their 
ignorant passions, and became perverted into 
debauchery. It was a feast or a famine with 
them, and such violent changes of habit 
never failed to work ruin. While slaves, 
they were confined to their quarters after 
certain hours of the night, and thus saved 
from malarial exposure; while in their new 
liberty they doubtless remained abroad until 
whatever hour they pleased. As to the 
health of the white troops, the excitement of 
war was in itself a prophylactic. But let the 
same men try regular labor in time of peace, 
and a different health-bill would be returned. 



214 The Prison Life 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Mr. Davis on Negro Character. — The Assas- 
sination of President Lincoln. — How the 
Prisoner s Food was Served. — A Solemn 
and Interesting Statement. 

August i^th. — Had been absent in Balti- 
more on official business some few days, dur- 
ing which Mr. Davis sent for me. Called with 
Captain Evans, Officer of the Day, and ex- 
plained my absence. A pustule, somewhat 
malignant in character, was forming on pris- 
oner's face, which was much inflamed and 
swollen. He reiterated belief that the case- 
mate was full of malarial poison, caused by 
the rising and falling of the tide in the ditch 
outside (as previously explained), and wished 
the Washington people would take quicker 
means of dispatching him, if his death without 
trial was their object. That it was so he was 



of Jefferson Davis, 2 1 5 

led to suspect, for a trial must develop many 
things not pleasant to those in power. In 
particular it would place the responsibility for 
the non-exchange of prisoners where it be- 
longed. 

Called the same evening. Prisoner in a 
high fever, the swelling of his face spreading 
to his back and head, with indications of 
latent erysipelas. Mr. Davis wished he could 
have with him his faithful servant Robert, 
who, though a slave, had a moral nobility 
deserving honor. The negroes had excellent 
traits of character, but required, for their own 
sakes, guidance and control. They were 
docile, as a general rule, easily imbued with 
religious sentiment, quick in sympathies, and 
of warm family affection. Their passions, 
however, were intense and uncontrollable. 
Slavery had been blamed for their inconti- 
nence, but this was unjust. Were the free 
blacks any less libidinous .f* The Southern 
slaves were incomparably more chaste, or less 
unchaste, than people of the same race in^the 
North. Slavery was a restraint upon pro- 



2i6 The Prison Life 

miscuous intercourse, and for commercial rea- 
sons, if for none higher. The negroes were 
improvident to a degree that must reduce 
them to destitution if not cared for. They 
had to be provided with fresh seeds for their 
Httle garden patches every year, no remon- 
strances sufficing to make them provide one 
season for the wants of the next. It was in 
their affections they were strong, and many 
of them had excellent traits. His man Rob- 
ert was the best and most faithful of his race, 
and had attended him through many serious 
illnesses. Was with his wife on board the 
Clyde, but might possibly have deserted the 
sinking ship by this time. Did not think he 
would, though others with greater claims to 
keep them faithful were among his enemies."^ 
August i6tL — Called with Captain Gressin, 
Aide-de-Camp of General Miles, Officer of 
the Day. Prisoner suffering severely, but in 
a less critical state, the erysipelas now show- 
ing itself in his nose and forehead. Found 

* See letter of Mrs. Davis further on, in regard to tljis 
worthy servant. 



of Jefferson Davis. 2 1 7 

that a carbuncle was forming on his left thigh, 
Mr. Da\ is urging this as proof of a malarial 
atmosphere in his cell, reiterating his wish 
that, if the Government wanted to be rid of 
him without trial, it might take some quicker 
process. 

Prisoner said he had never held much hope 
for himself since entering Fortress Monroe, 
and was now losing it for his people. The 
action and tone in regard to the Richmond 
elections, gave evidence that the policy of 
" woe to the conquered " would prevail. What 
a cruel farce it was to permit an exercise of 
the elective franchise, with a proviso that the 
electors must cast their ballots for men they 
despised or hated ! Either all pretence of 
continuing representative government should 
be abandoned, or free acceptance given to the 
men indorsed by the people. To ask men 
who had fought, sacrificed, and lost their all 
for a cause, to wheel suddenly, and vote into 
power men they despised as renegades or 
cowards, was the sin of attempting to seethe 

the kid in its mother's milk. Better for the 

10 



2i8 The Prison Life 

South to remain disfranchised forever, than 
crawl back into office or recognition through 
such incredible apostasy. Better remain pri- 
soners, than be citizens on such terms. In no 
district of Virginia could what we called a 
*' loyalist," muster a corporal's guard of men 
with similar sentiments. Why organize hy- 
pocrisy by attempting to force into elective 
positions men who were not representatives 
of their alleged constituents — men who could 
only excite the abhorrence or contempt of 
ninety-nine in every hundred of the people.-^ 
Either the South should be declared so many 
conquered provinces under military rule, or 
'given back the freedom of the ballot. To 
offer bribes for wholesale falsehood, would be 
found poor policy ; and the men hereafter to 
create trouble in the South, would not be the 
gallant and well-born gentlemen who fought 
loyally, and at every sacrifice of life and pro- 
perty for a cause they believed right, but that 
small scum of poltroons and renegades who 
remained " neutral " through the contest, only 
anxious to avoid danger for themselves, and 



..J 



of yefferson Davis. 219 

jump over to the side that won. The formei 
class accepted defeat, and would loyally pre- 
serve any obligations that might be imposed 
on them. The latter were worthless and piti- 
ful intriguers, commanding no popular confi- 
dence, chastened by no memories of the strug- 
gle ; and now that no personal risk could be 
incurred, would seek to attain popularity — the 
popularity of demagogues — by re-fanning into 
flame the passions and prejudices of the igno- 
rant and vulgar. They will be clamorous for 
Southern rights, now that Southern rights are 
dead, and out-Herod Herod in their professed 
devotion to the Southern cause. 

August 2otk, — Called with Captain Evans, 
Officer of the Day. Mr. Davis suffering great 
prostration, a cloud of erysipelas covering his 
whole face and throat. The carbuncle much 
inflamed. Spirits exceedingly dejected, evinc- 
ed by anxiety for his wife and children. That 
'he should die without opportunity of rebut- 
ting in public trial the imputed stigma of 
having had share in the conspiracy to assas- 
sinate Mr. Lincoln, was referred to frequently 



2 20 The Prison Lije 

and painfully. That history would do him 
justice, and the criminal absurdity of the 
charge be its own refutation, he had cheerful 
confidence while in health ; but in his feeble- 
ness and despondency, with knowledge how 
powerful they were who wished to affix this 
stain, his alarm, lest it might become a re- 
proach to his children, grew an increasing 
shadow. 

Of Mr. Lincoln he then spoke, not in 
affected terms of regard or admiration, but 
paying a simple and sincere tribute to his 
goodness of character, honesty of purpose, and 
Christian desire to be faithful to his duties 
according to such light as was given him. 
Also to his official purity and freedom from 
avarice. The Southern press labored in the 
early part of the war to render Mr. Lincoln 
abhorred and contemptible ; but such efforts 
were against his judgment, and met such 
opposition as his multiplied cares and labors 
would permit. Behind Mr. Lincoln, during 
his first term, stood an infinitely more objec- 
tionable and less scrupulous successor (Mr 



of Jefferson Davis. 221 

Hamlin) ; and the blow that struck down the 
President of the United States would place 
that successor in power. When Mr. Lincoln 
was reinaugurated, the cause of his people 
was hopeless, or very nearly so — the struggle 
only justifiable in continuance by its better 
attitude for obtaining terms ; and from no 
ruler the United States could have, might 
terms so generous have been expected. Mr. 
Lincoln was kind of heart, naturally longing 
for the glory and repose of a second term to 
be spent in peace. Mr. Johnson, being from 
the South, dare not offer such liberal treat- 
ment; his motives would be impugned. In 
every embittered national struggle, proposals 
to assassinate the rival representatives were 
common, emanating from different classes of 
men, with different motives : from spies of 
the enemy, wishing to obtain evidence how 
such proposals would be received ; from fana- 
tics, religious or patriotic, believing the act 
would prove acceptable to Heaven; from luna- 
tics, driven mad by sufferings connected with 
the struggle ; and from boastful and often 



222 The Prison Life 

cowardly desperadoes, seeking gold and noto- 
riety by attempting, or promising to attempt, 
the crime. At the time it occurred, Mr. Lin- 
coln's death, even by natural causes, would 
have been a serious injury to the prospects 
of the South ; but the manner of his taking- 
off, frenzying the Northern mind, was the last 
crowning calamity of a despairing and defeat- 
ed, though righteous cause. 

Atcgust 2ist. — Called with Captain Corlis, 
on the staff of General Miles, Officer of the 
Day. Prostration increased, and the erysi- 
pelas spreading. Deemed it my duty to send 
a communication to Major-General Miles, 
reporting that I found the State prisoner, 
Davis, suffering severely from erysipelas in 
the face and head,, accompanied by the usual 
prostration attending that disease.* Also that 
he had a small carbuncle on his left thigh, his 
condition denoting a low state of the vital 
forces. 

August 23^. — Called with Captain Evans, 
3d Pennsylvania Artillery, Officer of the Day. 
Prisoner a little improved, febrile symptoms 



of yefferson Davis. 223 

subsiding. Had no appetite for ordinary 
food, but found the coolness and moisture of 
fruits agreeable. Said he had concluded not 
to lose any more spoons for me, but would 
retain the one that morning sent with his 
breakfast. Unless things took a change, he 
would not require it long. 

[This was an allusion to the desire some of 
the guards had to secure trophies of anything 
Mr. Davis had touched. They had carried 
away his " brier-wood pipe, and from time to 
time taken five of the spoons sent over with 
his meals from my quarters. The meals were 
sent over by a bright little mulatto boy named 
Joe, who handed them to the sergeant of the 
guard, outside the casemate, who passed them 
through the window to the lieutenant of the 
guard in the outer cell, by whom they were 
handed to the prisoner through the grated 
doors of the inside room, the keys of which 
were held by the Officer of the Day. No 
knife and fork being allowed the prisoner, 
" lest he should commit suicide," his food had 
to be cut up before being sent over — a need- 



2 24 The Prison Life 

less precaution, it always seemed to me, and 
more likejy to produce than prevent the act, 
by continually keeping the idea that it was 
expected before the prisoner's mind. It was 
in returning the trays from Mr. Davis to my 
quarters that the spoons were taken — an 
annoyance obviated by his retaining one for 
use. This only changed the form of trophy, 
however ; napkins that he had used being the 
next class of prizes seized and sent home 
to sweethearts by loyal warders at the 
gates.] 

Mr. Davis expressed some anxiety as to his 
present illness. He was not one of those who, 
when in trouble, wished to die. Great inva- 
lids seldom had this wish, save when protract- 
ed sufferings had weakened the brain. Suicides 
were commonly of the robuster class— men 
who had never been brought close to death 
nor thought much about it seriously. A good 
old Bishop once remarked, that " dying was 
the last thing a man should think about," and 
the mixture of wisdom and quaint humor in 
the phrase had impressed Mr. Davis. Even to 



of Jefferson Davis. 225 

Christians, with the hope of an immortal future 
for the soul, the idea of physical annihilation 
— of parting forever from the tenement of flesh 
in which we have had so many joys and sor- 
rows — was one full of awe, if not terror. 
What it must be to the unbeliever, who enter- 
tained absolute and total annihilation as his 
prospect, he could not conceive. Never again 
to hear of wife or children — to take the great 
leap into black vacuity, with no hope of meet- 
ing in a brighter and happier life the loved 
ones left behind, the loved ones gone before ! 
He had more reasons than other men, and 
now more than ever, to wish for some pro- 
longation of life, as also to welcome death. 
His intolerable sufferings and wretched state 
argued for the grave as a place of rest. His 
duties to the cause he had represented, and 
his family, made him long to be continued on 
the footstool, in whatever pain or misery, at 
least until by the ordeal of a trial he could 
convince the world he was not the monster 
his enemies would make him appear, and that 
no wilful departures from the humanities of 



2 26 The Prison Life 

war had stained the escutcheon ^of his people. 
Errors, Hke all other men, he had committed ; 
but stretched now on a bed from which he 
might never rise, and looking with the eyes 
of faith, which no walls could bar, up to the 
throne of Divine mercy, it was his comfort 
that no such crimes as men laid to his charge 
reproached him in the whispers of his con- 
science. 

" They charge me with crime, Doctor, but 
God knows my innocence. I indorsed no 
measure that was not justified by the laws of 
war. Failure is all forms of guilt in one to 
men who occupied my position. Should I 
die, repeat this for the sake of my people, my 
dear wife, and poor darling children. Tell 
the world I only loved America, and that in 
following my State I was only carrying out 
doctrines received from reverenced lips in my 
early youth, and adopted by my judgment as 
the convictions of riper years." 

Mr. Davis spoke with intense earnestness — 
the solemnity of a dying man, though not 
then, in my judgment, in any immediate 



of Jefferson Davis. 227 

danger. His words, as quoted, were taken 
down on my return to quarters, and are here 
given for what, each reader may think them 
worth. They certainly impressed me as sin- 
cere, and as if — whether true or not, judged 
by the standard of law — the speaker uttered 
them in the good faith of a religious man, 
who thought death might very possibly be 
near, if not imminent and certain. 



2 28 The Prison Life 



CHAPTER XV. 

Southern Non-Bellio^erents, — The Ant'Lio7t 
and its Habits. — Mr. Davis on the Future 
of the Southern Blacks., 

August 2\th. — Visited Mr. Davis with Cap- 
tain Titlow, Officer of the Day. Found him 
sHghtly better in body and mind. Expressed 
hope that no sensational reports of his illness 
had appeared in the newspapers to alarm his 
wife more than necessary. His hope was 
faint, however. The swarm of newspaper 
correspondents, more than quadrupled by the 
war, no longer finding food for their pens in 
camps or on battle-fields, had to seize every 
item of the slightest interest and swell it into 
importance by exaggeration, in order to retain 
their employment. Spoke of the superior 
literary and inventive powers of our corre- 



of Jefferson Davis, 229 

spondents during the war. To contrabt the 
dry official report of some affair of outposts 
or the skirmish Hne, in which half a dozen 
men on either side had been killed 01 
wounded, with the wonderfully enlarged and 
intensely colored mirage of the same appear- 
ing some few days subsequently in the North- 
ern press, formed an amusing and amazing 
study, giving one a higher ideal of man's 
imaginative power. The Southern press, on 
the contrary, was short of printers, short of 
paper, and all other requisites for exciting 
journalism, insomuch that latterly only the 
meagerest skeletons of events could appear; 
and even official documents, and debates of 
the highest consequence, had to be briefly 
epitomized. 

Mr. Davis said the press of the South had 
enjoyed more liberty and given more trouble 
to its government than that of the North. 
Properly conducted, its power was an impor- 
tant adjunct to the machinery of war; but 
engineering it was a complex study, calling for 
special education in its professor. The only 



230 The Prison Life 

men still remaining vindictively belligerent 
and anxious to perpetuate trouble in the 
South — so far as he knew, and as their words 
could reach — would be found in the small-fry 
of little country editors, and certain classes of 
civilians who had been exempted from mili- 
tary service by special legislation, the purchase 
of substitutes, or the procurement of details. 
It was the non-belligerents of actual conflict ' 
who had always been and would remain most 
ferociously belligerent in speech and writing. | 
Not having borne arms in the struggle, they 
might claim rewards for their loyalty or i 
neutrality in Federal patronage, or offices to be j 
filled by popular vote ; and such claims would : 
likely be allowed by our people to the exclu- 
sion of those fearless and honorable men, who 1 
— having fought, failed, and accepted defeat — 1 
were now only anxious to erase all painful ' 
souvenirs and legacies of the unfortunate 
and unavailing strife. : 

Observing me brush away with my foot ; 
some crumbs scattered near his bedside, Mr. ; 
Davis asked me to desist; they were for a | 



of Jefferso7i Davis. 2 3 1 

mouse he was domesticating — the only living 
thing he had now power to benefit. The 
drawback to this companionship was, that the 
crumbs called forth a swarm of red ants as well 
as the mouse ; and he suggested, with a smile, 
that a few ant-lions should be caught and 
brought in from the beach. Placed in a cigar- 
box, with some fine sand and a lump of sugar, 
or a few dead locusts, to attract the ants, they 
would soon rid him of his insect visitors, and 
afford him, though on a small scale, the 
nearest approach to sport he could now 
have. 

Finding my curiosity excited, Mr. Davis 
then described the ant-lion with much minute- 
ness and pleasant humor, saying it was next 
to the bee as an interesting study in natural 
history. It is about the size of a small, elon- 
gated pea, three legs on each size, a forceps 
proportionably immense arming^ its head, and 
between these nippers a sharp stiletto, which 
can be drawn In or thrown out at pleasure. 
It is found all along the Southern coast, and 
would seem to have a difficult problem in sup- 



232 The Prison Life 

porting life. It is painfully slow of movement, 
always walking backward and dragging its 
heavy forceps along the ground behind it; 
while the ants, on which it chiefly preys, are 
extremely active. Nature, however, has com 
pensated by subtlety what the ant-lion lacks in 
spring. It digs a funnel-shaped hole in the 
fine sand of the Southern coast, circular at the 
top, of an inch diameter and an inch in depth. 
At the bottom it secretes itself in the sand, 
only its forceps protruding. These pitfalls are 
located about an inch or so from the stems of 
shrubs or tufts of grass — the ants flocking to 
these latter, because finding in them a species 
of grass-louse called the ant-cow, which the 
ant milks by suction as its favorite food, the 
cows not resisting lest worse befall them, and 
not appearing injured by the process. While 
the ants are thus hastening to their food, some 
one of them will approach the brink of the 
ant-lion's pitfall, and instantly the fine sand of 
the edge gives way, precipitating the unwary 
traveller to the bottom. Here he is seized by 
the forceps, and firmly held, while the stiletto 



of Jefferson Davis. 233 

is driven through his body. His juices are 
soon sucked dry by die secreted monster of 
the cave, and then with one jerk of the forceps, 
the carcass is flung up and out two or three 
inches beyond the edge of the funnel — a dis- 
tance as much as if a man were thrown one 
hundred and fifty times his length. Should 
the ant, when first tumbling, escape the grasp 
of the forceps, and seek to clamber out of the 
trap, the ant-lion foils the attempt by jerking 
little jets of sand on the body and across the 
path of his flying victim, who is soon stunned, 
bewildered, and losing his foot-grasp on the 
slippery sides, falls back a helpless prey to his 
destroyer. Mr. Davis, when on the coast of 
Georgia, many years ago, had often spent 
hours in watching them, and their whole per- 
formance could be witnessed by placing one 
in a cigar-box half filled with fine sand, and 
dropping in some sugar or a dead locust to 
attract the ants. The ant-lion would not be 
in the box half a day, before commencing to 
earn his livelihood by digging out his trap. 
So great was the habit of subtlety in this in- 



2 34 Th^ Prison Life 

sect, that when moving from place to place, it 
always burrowed along just a little beneath 
-the surface of the sand ; and he had heard, if 
compelled to cross a stone, log, or other ob- 
struction, that it seized a chip or leaf with its 
forceps, thereby coveriag its body, as it slowly 
and painfully toiled backward. This, how- 
ever, he could not verify from personal obser- 
vation. 

Every conversation of this kind with Mr. 
Davis recalled the saying of some eminent 
writer whose name has escaped me, that " it is 
a noble thing to know how to take a country 
walk," or words containing that idea, but 
more concisely and vividly expressed. Edu- 
cated by the microscope and habits of obser- 
vation, we become afraid of treading on some 
of God's beautiful little things at every step. 

August 2^th. — Called upon Mr. Davis, 
accompanied by Captain Gresson of the staff 
of Major-General Miles, Officer of the Day. 
The Captain gave me an order from General 
Miles, allowing State-prisoner Davis to havj a 
knife and fork with his meals hereafter. Mr. 



of Jefferson Davis, - 235 

Davis was pleased, but said he had learned 
many new uses to which a spoon could be 
put when no other implement was accessible. 
In particular, it was the best peach-peeler ever 
invented, and he illustrated as he spoke on a 
fruit that lay on his table. Denying him a 
knife and fork lest he should commit suicide, 
he said, was designed to represent him to the 
world as an atrocious criminal, so harrowed 
by remorse that the oblivion of death would 
be welcome. His early shackles had partly 
the same object, but still more to degrade his 
cause. 

Prisoner's health very delicate, but the 
erysipelas subsiding. Asked could he soon 
resume his walks in the open air? The 
change of scene being a great delight, and 
the exercise improving his sleep. 

He referred to an account he had been 
reading of an attack on a negro named 
Davenport, in Connecticut, for " marrying or 
living with a white woman. Also, to the 
New York riots, in which mobs rose suddenly 
upon the blacks, hanging them to lamp-posts 



236 The Prison Life 

• 

and roasting them at slow fires. The papers 

bore evidence, from all sections, of increasing 
hostility between the races, and this was but 
part of the penalty the poor negro had to pay 
for freedom. The more political equality was 
given or approached, the greater must become 
the social antagonism of the races. In the 
South, under slavery, there was no such feel- 
ing, because there could be no rivalry. Chil- 
dren of the white master were often suckled 
by negroes, and sported during infancy with 
black playmates. Old enough to engage in 
manlier exercise, it was under black hunts- 
men the young whites took their first les- 
sons in field-sports. They fished, shot, and 
hunted together, eating the same bread, 
drinking from the same cup, sleeping under 
the same tree with their negro guide. In 
public conveyances there was no social exclu- 
sion of the blacks, nor any dislike engen- 
dered by competition between white and negro 
labor. In the bed-chamber of the planter's 
daughter it was common for a negro girl to 
sleep, as half attendant half companion ; and 



of Jefferson Davis, 237 

while there might be, as in all countries and 
amongst all races, individual instances of 
cruel treatment, he was well satisfied that 
between no master and laboring classes on 
earth had so kindly and regardful a feeling 
subsisted. To suppose otherwise required a 
violation of the known laws of human nature. 
Early associations of service, affection and 
support were powerful. To these self-interest 
joined. The horse we hire for a day may be 
fed or not fed, groomed or not groomed, when 
returned to the livery-stable. The horse 
owned by us, and for which we have paid a 
thousand or fifteen hundred dollars, is an 
object both of pride and solicitude. His 
grooming, stabling, and feeding are cared for. 
If sick he is doctored, and cured if possible. 
When at work, it is the owners interest that 
he shall not be overtaxed. 

The attainment of political equality by the 
negro will revolutionize all this. It will be as 
if our horses were given the right of intruding 
into our parlors ; or brought directly into 
competition with human labor, no longer 



238 The Priso7i Life 

aiding it but as rivals. Put large gangs of 
white laborers, belonging to different nation- 
alities, at work beside each other, and feuds 
will probably break out. Endeavor to sup 
plant a thousand Irishmen working on a 
levee or canal by a thousand Germans ready 
to accept lower wages, or vice versa, and 
military power will be required to keep the 
peace. Emancipation does this upon a gigan- 
tic scale and in the most aggravated form. 
It throws the whole black race into direct 
and aggressive competition with the laboring 
classes of the whites-; and the ignorance of 
the blacks, presuming on their freedom, will 
embitter every difference. The principle of 
compensation prevails everywhere through 
nature, and the negroes will have to pay, in 
harsher social restrictions and treatment, for 
the attempt to invest them with political 
equality. To endow them with the ballot by 
Act of Congress was impossible, until the 
trunk of the Constitution, already stripped of 
many branches once full of shade and plea- 
sant singing-birds, was torn up by the roots. 



of Jefferson Davis, 239 

Each State had the privilege of deciding the 
quaHfications of its own citizens ; and some 
of the States most clamorous for universal 
negro suffrage in the South, where such a 
measure would send unlettered blacks to both 
Houses of Congress, and pass the State Legis- 
lature and judiciary altogether into their 
hands, themselves refused the ballot to the 
negro, though not numerous enough in any 
district to decide the majority of a pound- 
keeper. 

Took issue with Mr. Davis on the labor 
question. What necessity for competition in 
a country so vast, and only partially develop- 
ed, as the South ? The relations of the races 
would adjust themselves, under the laws of 
supply and demand, and the whites still own- 
ed their old plantations and other property, 
which was their capital ; and to this the labor 
of the blacks would have to bow. White labor 
could not long remain, nor to any great ex- 
tent, in competition with black. It had ac- 
cumulative energies, guided by intelligence, 
which must soon lift it into the employing 



240 The Prison Life 

class ; while the blacks, if so incapable of 
thrift as he seemed to think, must remain 
hewers of wood and drawers of water for ever. 
The antagonisms of so violent a revolution 
in the labor-system of the South were natural, 
but must soon fade out. There never had 
been any desire North to give the negroes 
social equality; but our pride, not less than 
sense of justice, demanded that there should 
be no political bar to their improving their 
own condition to equal that of the whites, if 
they possessed the capacity for such elevation. 
As to the outrages upon the blacks in New 
York, they were the work of a few abandoned 
and maddened wretches — men certainly not 
representing nor belonging to the party in 
control of our national destinies. It was a 
riot to resist the draft, and the inoffensive 
blacks became objects of vengeance, from the 
democratic cry that the war making the draft 
necessary was a "war for the nigger." The 
case in Connecticut was a protest in violent 
and illegal form of certain turbulent whites 
against the intermarrying of the races. It 



of yefferson Davis, 241 

was lawless, of course, and one of the rioters 
had lost his life at the hands of the black, 
who was held justifiable. Nevertheless, the 
sentiment that prompted the attack — one 
of the opposition to such deteriorating inter- 
minglements — was all but universal, and offer- 
ed sufficient guarantee that the dominant race 
would never suffer material injury to its blood 
or character from the political equality of the 
negroes. 

Mr. Davis said no argument could make 
us agree, for we occupied different planes of 
observation. There could be no problem of 
the negro at the North, for they were too few 
to be of consequence ; and each census show- 
ed their number diminishing. It was in the 
Cotton States, where they equalled, and in 
many districts largely outnumbered the whites, 
that the adjustment of relationship would 
prove impossible undej such ideas as now 
threatened to prevail in the Federal Govern- 
ment. As for himself and his people, they 
were now only passengers in the ship of State 

— no longer of the crew, nor with places on 

II 



242 The Priso7i Life 

the quarter-deck; and must take, he supposed, 
whatever decision of the question the powers 
that had Hfted themselves above the Consti- 
tution might see fit to impose. 



of yefferson Davis, 243 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Mr. Davis on Fenianism. — Highly ImportanL 
— His Views of Reconstruction, 

August 26th, — Called upon Mr. Davis, ac- 
companied by Captain Evans, 3d Pennsyl- 
vania Artillery, Officer of the Day. Health 
slightly improved, and spirits decidedly more 
cheerful. 

Mr. Davis said his imprisonment had one 
advantage, giving him time to re-read Ban- 
croft's History of the United States, and read 
Macaulay's History of England — the latter 
something he had long wished, but could not 
find time for. The system of settlement and 
confiscations under Cromwell, in Ireland, was 
precisely what his people were now threaten- 
ed with. The cry then was, "To * =^ ^ * or 
Connaught!" whither an attempt was made 



244 '^^^ Prison Life 

to drive and herd together the whole people 
Whole estates, and even counties, were con- 
fiscated by orders in council, on no other plea 
than that the proprietors were either of the 
Irish race, or, being born on Irish soil, had 
Irish sympathies or habits. This history now 
threatened to repeat itself in the United 
States, the cry only varying to read, " To 
* ^ ^^ * or Mexico ! " and the locality changed 
from Ireland to the South. There was no 
excuse for it here; there had been some in 
Ireland. Between the conquering forces of 
Cromwell and the Irish there were essential 
differences of race, religion, habits, laws, and 
hopes. There had been war for centuries, 
and no promise of future tranquillity on less 
rigorous terms. Were the races the same, 
though controlled by different ideas ; their 
religion, habits, and laws almost identical, and 
with only a single internecine war to inter- 
rupt the harmony of their joint occupation of 
the continent — there was the further parallel 
that both countries suffered for loyalty to what 
each regarded as the rightful government; 



of Jefferson Davis, 245 

Ireland, for devotion to the Royal Family of 
the Stuarts ; and the South, for its fidelity 
to the principles defined by the Constitution 
of 1787. 

The present Fenian movement for Ireland 
was a farce to make angels weep. The last 
attempt was in 1848, when the population 
of Ireland was more than a million larger — 
the movement originating at home, and 
all Europe in a convulsive and volcanic 
condition. History gave no example of an 
oppressed race that had accepted exile, return- 
ing with success to liberate their native land. 
The aristocratic refugees of the French Revo- 
lution, indeed, got back to their country, but 
only under the swords of a combination in 
which England, Austria, Russia, Prussia, and 
the German States were enlisted, with their 
whole military resources. It was a mere 
catch-penny clamor of designing demagogues 
in its cis- Atlantic aspect; nor could he see 
that in Ireland there was organization, or 
even a vigorous purpose to accomplish the 
object proposed. England's control of the 



246 The Prison Life 

sea was absolute, at least so near home 
against any less combination than the navies 
of France and America. To land men or 
arms in any sufficient quantity in Ireland, 
would require some desperate sea-fights by 
navy with navy, and a transport fleet, costing 
for vessels and their equipment not less than 
some hundred millions. The men engaged 
in this matter must be either fools or rogues. 
He had no special cause to love England, nor 
dislike ; but such impracticable and pigmy 
threatenings of her empire would be ludi- 
crous if not too sad. Against the rocks of 
her coast, storm-clouds of a thousandfold the 
Fenian power had dashed with clamor of 
waves and mist of spray, but next morning 
the sun shone bright again, the air was calm, 
and only in a shore strewn with wrecks could 
evidence be found of any past commotion. 

Asking Mr. Davis what were his views in 
regard to the reconstruction of the Union, he 
spoke pretty nearly " verbatim as follows ; 
this report not being condensed as with other 
conversations, but taken down in full from 



of yefferso7i Davis, 247 

memory, immediately on my return to quar- 
ters : 

" We could not otherwise define reconstruc- 
tion, than as a renewal to and by all the States, 
of all the rights, privileges, duties, Immunities, 
and obligations prescribed and recognized by 
the Constitution, or original compact of Union. 
There were- several possible alternatives to this 
plan of reconstruction : 

" I St. Consolidation: the swallowing up of 
all State governments by the General Gov- 
ernment, making the whole country one State, 
only divided Into provinces for easier adminis- 
tration, but connected as one entity of policy 
and power. 

" 2d. Terrltorialism : the control of the 
Southern States by a Congress and Executive 
representing only the Northern States — that 
is, colonial vassalage and government by 
authority of greater force. 

" 3d. By open subversion and usurpation to 
establish a despotism over North and South, 
while yet preserving a certain Republican 
form. 



248 The Prison Life 

" In replying to one who served through the 
war for no other purpose, as you avow, than 
to defend and maintain the Union as defined 
by the Constitution," continued Mr. Davis, 
" there can be no necessity for considering any 
other policy than that of re-establishing the 
relations of all the States and their citizens to 
each other and the United States Gov- 
ernment. 

" Every man's experience must teach him 
that quarrels between friends are best healed 
when they are healed most promptly. The 
alienation which was at first a pain, becomes 
by time habitual, and the mantle of charity 
being withdrawn, the faults of each become 
more and more distinct to the other, and thus 
the bitterest hates naturally spring from the 
ashes of the closest friendship. 

"It is therefore probably to be regretted 
that so much delay has occurred in the work 
of reconstruction, because of the enhance- 
ment thereby of the difficulties in the way of 
speedy and cordial reconciliation. This 
opinion is qualified as ' probable,' because of 



of yefferson Davis, 249 

my want of recent intercourse with the people. 
A short time before the close of the war, the 
idea was infused into my people, as you are 
well aware, that if they would cease resistance, 
the Union would be restored, and all their 
rights of person and property respected, save 
the property held in slaves, which would be a 
question for the courts. I have no doubt 
that a majority — a very large majority — of the 
Southern people accepted this proposed settle- 
ment with singleness of purpose ; and would, 
if confidingly and generously treated, have 
been now industriously engaged in repairing 
their wrecked fortunes, without any thought 
of again resisting or obstructing the General 
Government in its ordinary functions. 

" How far the public wealth would by this 
course have been increased, the public expen- 
ditures lessened, may be measured by many 
hundred millions of dollars. If it be true that 
much has been lost, morally and materially, 
by delay, it would seem that true policy indi- 
cates the promptest action in what is termed 
Reconstruction. The North says we have 



250 The Prison Life 

done evil, and when bidding us 'cease to do 
evil' should not prevent us 'learning to do, 
well' This can only be done by removing all 
impediments to the exercise of State functions 
and the re-enjoyment of such civil and politi- 
cal riofhts as are left us in the Union. 

" Each House of Congress is judge of the 
election and qualification of its own members. 
The Constitution has settled the question of 
representation. A constituency may lose its 
rights for a time by selecting ineligible per- 
sons to be its representatives ; but the right 
of representation is not impaired thereby, and 
the mistake or abuse may be remedied by a 
new election. Test-oaths are evil continually, 
and only evil. They restrain those honorable 
men who require no fetters, while men of a 
different class will either take them perjurious- 
ly or with a 'mental reservation.' All history 
has proved them ineffectual and something 
worse. 

" Our forefathers emigrated to a wilderness, 
and waged the war of the Revolution, to have 
and to hold a government founded on the con- 



of Jefferson Davis. i? 5 1 

sent of the governed. They consulted and 
compromised with each other to establish a 
voluntary Union. If that idea is to be follow- 
ed, confidence, generosity, fraternity, and not 
test-oaths, disabilities, and armies quartered in 
the interior, must be relied upon to restore the 
Union and make it re-effective for the ends 
for which it was formed. 

" Reconstruction," continued Mr. Davis, 
" cannot properly involve or be made to 
depend on those social problems which have 
arisen from the sudden disruption of the 
relations existing between the white and the 
black races in the Southern States. These 
problems belong to the several States, and 
must have treatment according to the dif- 
ferent circumstances of each. No general 
rule can properly be made applicable to all, 
and it will prove unfortunate if the subject is 
controlled by distant and but poorly-informed, 
if not prejudiced authority. The self-interest 
of individuals and communities, together with 
the demand for labor so far exceeding the 
supply, may safely be left to protect the laborer. 



252 The Prison Life 

The public actions of the Southern State 
Conventions furnishes conclusive evidence of 
the desire of the Southern people to resume 
their position in the Union ; and it must 
strike all observers with surprise, that while 
those who strove so desperately to leave the 
Union, are now so earnestly endeavoring to 
reassume their places in it, it is the very men 
who sent fire and sword to destroy them, or 
compel them to return, who now bar the 
door and deny them readmission to that very 
condition- to which it was throughout the 
war proclaimed to be their first and last duty 
to return. Solitary reflection," concluded 
Mr. Davis, " has gi\^en me no key to the 
mysterious origin of this change in Northern 
opinion, which I find evidenced in every 
newspaper that reaches me ; and perhaps 
my own sad state has tinged with its gloom 
the vista of the future, if, thus alienated, dis- 
jointed, and adrift, the country should be 
visited with such trials of foreign war, either 
with France or England, or both, as are now 
so often suggested in the public journals of 



of Jefferson Davis, 253 

America, and their extracts from the European 
press." 

This conversation impressed me much, and 
has been recorded with peculiar care, Mr. 
Davis dehvering it with great deHberation 
and earnestness, as though the subject were 
one upon which he had been reflecting. It is 
as nearly as possible reproduced in his own 
words, without abridgment, and may, per- 
haps, be of some suggestive value — perhaps 
of none. Let the wise of the land determine. 



254 T/z^ Prison Life 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Mr. Davis seriously III. — Change of Qtmrte^'s 
officially Recom7nended. — The Pictures and 
Poetry of the Bible. — Lafayette s Impri- 
sonment. — Marvellous Memory and great 
Variety of Knowledge. — Mr. Davis on 
Female Lecturers. — The True Missio7i of 
Women. 

September \st. — Was called at daylight by 
Captain Titlow, Officer of the Day, to see 
State-prisoner Davis, who appeared rapidly 
sinking, and was believed in a critical condi- 
tion. The carbuncle on his thigh was much 
inflamed, his pulse indicating extreme prostra- 
tion of tlie vital forces. The erysipelas which 
had subsided now reappeared, and the febrile 
excitement ran very high. Prescribed such 
remedies, constitutional and topical, as were 
indicated; but always had much trouble to 



of Jeffersoit Davis, 255 

persuade him to use the stimulants so urgently 
needed by his condition. Let me here say, 
however, that in docility and a strict adhe- 
rence to whatever regimen w^as prescribed 
Mr. Davis was the model patient of my prac- 
tice. He seemed to regard the doctor as 
captain of the patient's health, and obeyed* 
every direction, however irksome, disagreeable, 
or painful, with military exactness. 

Mr. Davis renewed his complaints of the 
vitiated^ atmosphere of the casemate, declaring 
it to be noxious and pestilential from the 
causes before noticed. Mould gathered upon 
his shoes, showing the dampness of the place ; 
and no animal life could prosper in an atmo- 
sphere that generated these hyphomycetous 
•fungi. From the rising and falling of the 
tides in the loose foundations of the casemate, 
mephitic fungi emanated, the spores of which, 
floating in the air, were thrown off in such 
quantities, and with such incessant repetitions 
of reproduction, as to thoroughly pervade the 
atmosphere, entering the lungs and blood 
with every breath, and redeveloping their 



256 The Prison Life 

poisonous qualities in the citadel of life. 
Peculiar classes of these fungi were charac- 
teristics of the atmosphere in which cholera 
and other forms of plague were most rankly 
generated, as had been established by the 
Rev. Mr. Osborne, in a long and interesting 
series of experimental researches with the 
achromatic microscope during the cholera 
visitation of 1854 in England. Men in robust 
health might defy these miasmatic influences; 
but to him, so physically reduced, the atmo- 
sphere that generated mould found no vital 
force sufficient to resist its poisonous inhala- 
tion. 

Assured Mr. Davis that his opinion on the 
matter had for some time been my own, and 
that on several occasions I had called the at- 
tention of Major-General Miles to the subject. 
Satisfied that the danger was now serious if 
he were longer continued in such an atmo- 
sphere, I would make an official report on the 
subject to the General Commanding, recom- 
mending a change of quarters. 

Referring to the consolation he derived 



of yefferson Davis. 257 

from the Bible, Mr. Davis spoke of its power 
to present beautiful and comforting pictures, 
full of promise and instruction, apposite to 
every situation of joy or calamity in life, but 
never so well appreciated as in our moments 
of deepest despondency and sorrow. No pic- 
ture had impressed him more than that of 
Abraham preparing to sacrifice Isaac, his son 
— the son of promise. The grim fidelity of 
the narrative only heightened its irresistible 
pathos. The sad journey to Mount Moriah 
of Abraham with his two young men and 
Isaac, the father only knowing the terrible 
burden of the duty imposed on him by 
angelic order. The halt when they came 
in sight of the hill of sacrifice. Abraham's 
brief, sad order to his two attendants : " Abide 
ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will 
go up yonder and worship." The silent 
procession to the place of sacrifice, Isaac with 
the wood upon his shoulders, the father strid- 
ing along in dumb despair, with the knife in 
one hand and the torch in the other. Isaac's 
child-like inquiry, " Behold the fire and the 



258 The Prison Life 

wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt- 
offering?" and Abraham's reply of faith, 
Jehovah jireh — " My son, God will provide 
it." Last scene of all, the son of promise 
bound on the faggots his young shoulders 
had so joyously borne ; the miserable father 
bending over the lad he loved, the joy of his old 
age, grasping the knife that was to slay him. 
Then comes the Divine interference, in the 
voice of the angel once again. The promise 
of faith, Jehovah jireh, is redeemed, and be- 
hind the father, as he turns, beholds a ram 
entangled in a thicket by his horns. In many 
an hour of bitter calamity the words Jehovah 
jireh had been his only consolation. When 
troubles that seemed hopeless of extrication 
encompassed him on every side, the words 
Jehovah jireh were full of whispering con- 
solation to his spirit. His mind had framed 
the picture in gold, and it was but one of a 
thousand. 

Another beautiful picture Mr. Davis spoke 
of as suspended in the gallery through which 
his thoughts, in their despondent moments, 



of yefferson Davis, 259 

loved to trace. Dark night over Jerusalem. 
A little group, a Master and faithful follow- 
ers, emerging from the gates. As they de- 
scend into the valley, their mantles are drawn 
more closely round their hurrying and silent 
figures, for the night-wind is chill and damp. 
Where the little brook Kedron runs, we see 
them picking their way across the stones ; 
and now they move silently up the Mount of 
Olives into the Garden of Gethsemane. That 
night, before quitting Jerusalem, they had sat 
at supper — a Supper since commemorated in 
all Christian lands ; and as they sat and did 
eat, the Master foretold that one of these fol- 
lowers should betray Him. And now they 
have arrived at the garden ; and the Master, 
calling three of His most beloved disciples, 
leads them apart from the others, and breathes 
into their ears as they move along in the 
double shadows of night and the olive grove, 
that " His soul is sorrowful even unto death." 
When sufficiently removed from the larger 
group, and as they approach a darker cluster 
of olives, the Master says to the three, " Tarry 



26o The Prison Life 

ye here and watch." In the great agony that 
is upon Him, He longs to be alone. Already 
the burden of the sins of mankind, whom He 
so loves that He is about to die for them, 
grows too weighty for his tenement of flesh. 
About a stone's cast from the lesser group, 
the Master falls upon the ground, and prays 
with thick sobs into the pitying darkness, that 
if it be possible, this hour may pass from Him 
— the human in His nature crying out under 
its intolerable burden, " Take away this cup 
from me ; for with thee, O Father, all things 
are possible." But again the Divine will be- 
comes paramount; faith reasserts her ascen- 
dancy; and bowing His head upon His hands, 
the Master sobs, " Nevertheless, not my will, 
but thine be done." And here, as with Abra- 
ham on the hill of Jehovah jireh, an angel 
appears to strengthen and comfort the obe- 
dient heart. Mr. Davis said he could bear 
to witness the agonizing scene of the garden, 
but wished to blot from his memory the un- 
faithfulness of the watchers. 

Mr. Davis again spoke of the wretchedness 



of Jefferson Davis, 261 

of being constantly watched — of feeling that 
a human eye, inquisitive and pitiless, was fix- 
ed upon all his movements night and day. 
This was one of the torments imposed on the 
Marquis de Lafayette in the dungeons of 
Magdeburgh and Olmutz. Indeed, the pa- 
rallel between their prison lives, if not in 
some other respects, was remarkable. Lafay- 
ette was denied the use of knife or fork, lest 
he should commit self-destruction. He was 
confined in a casemate, or dungeon, of the 
two most powerful fortresses of Prussia first, 
and then Austria. While in Magdeburgh, he 
found a friend in the humane physician, who 
repeatedly reported that the prisoner could 
not live unless allowed to breathe purer air 
than that of his cell ; and on this recommen- 
dation — the Governor at first answering that 
he "was not ill enough yet" — the illustrious 
prisoner was at length allowed to take the air 
— sometimes on foot, at other times in a car- 
riage, but always accompanied by an officer 
with drawn sword and two armed guards. 
Mr. Davis then narrated, with great spirit 



262 The Prison Life 

and minuteness, the efforts made by Count 
Lally-Tolendal, assisted by Dr. Eric Boll- 
mann, of Hanover, and Mr. Huger, of South 
CaroHna, to effect Lafayette's liberation. Mr. 
Huger was a young gentleman of Huguenot 
extraction ; and Lafayette, upon landing near 
Georgetown, South Carolina, accompanied by 
Baron De Kalb, had first been a guest of 
Major Huger, the father of his rescuer. Dr. 
Bollmann's visit to Vienna, where he remained 
six months, lulling suspicion by pretending to 
study or practise medicine ; his there meeting 
with young Huger, and the manner in which 
these two cautious, though daring, men mutu- 
ally discovered to each other their similarity 
of object; the code of signals which they 
gradually established with the prisoner, and 
his final rescue for some brief hours from cap- 
tivity by their exertions, together with his 
re-arrest and the capture and terrible punish- 
ment inflicted on his rescuers — all these 
points Mr. Davis recited with a vividness 
which made each feature in the successive 
scenes pass before the mental eye as though 



of Jefferson Davis. 263 

in the unrolling of a panorama. Huger and 
Bollmann were heavily ironed round the neck, 
and chained to the floors of separate dun- 
geons, in utter darkness. Once every half 
hour the Austrian Oflicer of the Day entered, 
flashed a dark lantern into their faces to identi- 
fy them and see that they still lived, and then 
carefully examined every link of the chains 
binding their necks to the floor and shackling 
their feet and wrists. This treatment lasted, 
night and day, for six months, the prisoners 
being almost skeletons when finally obtaining 
their release, which was secured by the repre- 
sentations of General Washington, the pow^er- 
ful advocacy of Mr. Fox and the Liberals in 
the British Parliament, and the humane sym- 
pathy of the Count Metrouskie, who wielded 
a powerful influence in the Austrian court. 
Lafayette, however, even in his second Impri- 
sonment, was never shackled; and though 
treated with the utmost cruelty, no indignities 
were offered to his person, save that he was 
robbed of his watch and some other trinkets 
on being recommitted, reduced to a single 



264 The Prison Life 

suit of clothes, and stripped of every little 
comfort that had been previously allowed him, 
save such occasional betterments of food — his 
regulation diet being bread and water — as 
were certified by his medical attendant to be 
necessary for the support of life. 

It may be here remarked, that the power 
of memory possessed by Mr. Davis appeared 
almost miraculous — a single perusal of any 
passage that interested either his assent or 
denial enabling him to repeat it almost verba- 
tim, when eulogizing its logic or combating 
what he considered its errors. This wonder- 
ful gift of memorizing, and apparent uiiiver- 
sality of knowledge, were remarked by every 
Officer of the Day as well as myself, Mr. 
Davis having kindly relations with all, and 
conversation suited to each visitor. As in- 
stances of this — at which I was not present 
myself, but heard related from the officers 
immediately after their occurrence — let me 
mention two conversations. 

An Officer of the Day, very fond of dogs, 
and believing himself well posted in all vari- 



of yefferson Davis. 265 

eties of that animal, once entered the prison- 
er's cell, followed by a bull-terrier or some 
other breed of belligerent canine. Mr. Davis 
at once commenced examining and criticising 
the dog's points with all the minuteness of a 
master, thence gliding into a general review 
of the whole race of pointers, setters, and re- 
trievers ; terriers, bull-dogs, German poodles, 
greyhounds, blood-hounds, and so forth ; the 
result of his conversation being best given in 
the words of the dog-fancying officer : " Well, 
I thought I knew something about dogs, but 
hang me if I won't get appointed Officer of 
the Day as often as I can, and go to school 
with Jeff. Davis." On another occasion 
" some lewd fellows of the baser sort " in the 
garrison had been fighting a main of cocks ; 
the Lieutenant of the Guard in the outer room 
being the proud possessor of the victorious^ 
chanticleer. It thus came to pass that the 
conquering bird, with dripping plumage, was 
brought under the prisoner's notice, and again 
the same scene as with the dog-fancier was re- 
peated in regard to game-cocks and fighting- 



266 The Prison Life 

birds of all varieties — Mr. Davis describing 
the popularity of the sport in Mexico, and 
adding, that when a boy in Mississippi, he 
had seen only too much of it, until found 
out and forbidden by his parents. 

On quitting Mr. Davis this, day, and in 
compliance with the order of Major-General 
Miles, I transmitted to headquarters the fol- 
lowing report : 

Office of the Chief Medical Officer, 
Fort Monroe, Va., September i, 1865. 

Brevet Major-General N. A. Miles, 

Commandi7ig Military District^ 

Fort Monroe^ Va, 
General: — I have the honor to report 
prisoner Davis still suffering from the effects 
of a carbuncle. The erysipelas of the face 
had entirely subsided, but yesterday reap- 
peared. His health is evidently rapidly de- 
clining. 

I remain, General, very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

John J. Craven, 

Bv't Lieut-Col. U. S. Vol's, and C. M. O., 

Military District, Fort Monroe, Va. 



of Jcfferso7i Davis, 267 

September 2d, — Visited prisoner early, ac- 
companied by Captain Sanderson, 3d Penn- 
sylvania Artillery, Officer of the Day. Con 
dition of Mr. Davis may be seen in the two 
following reports, the first being the ordinary 
one addressed to Major-General Miles, accom 
panied by a verbal recommendation (often 
previously made), for a change of quarters. 
The second, a fuller report, covering the same 
point, in official form, intended to be trans- 
mitted by General Miles to the authorities at 
Washington. The routine report merely ran : 

" I have the honor to report prisoner Davis's 
condition not perceivably different from that 
of yesterday : very feeble ; no appetite." 

The second report, of same date, intended 
for transmission to the War Department, ran 
as follows: 

Office of the Chief Medical Officer, 
Fort Monroe, Va., September 2, 1865. 

Brevet Major-General N. A. Miles, 
Commanding Military District^ 

Fort Monroe, Va. 
General • — I have the honor to report that 



268 The Prison Life 

I was called to see prisoner Davis on the 24th 
day of May last. I found him very feeble ; 
prematurely old; all the evidence of an iron 
will, but extremely reduced in physical struc- 
ture. As he continued to fail, changes were 
suggested in his prison life, and kindly granted ; 
his food was changed from prison food to a 
liberal diet ; the guards and light were removed 
from his room ; he was permitted to walk in 
the open air, and to have miscellaneous read- 
ing. Indeed, everything was done for him to 
render him comfortable as a prisoner. 

Within the last week, I have noticed a great 
change in the prisoner. He has become de- 
spondent and dull, a very unnatural condition 
for him. He is evidently breaking down. 
Save a small patch of erysipelas upon his face, 
and a carbuncle upon one of his limbs, no 
pointed disease, but general prostration. 

I am of opinion that it may be in a mea- 
sure attributed to the dampness of his rooqj, 
for I have noticed lately a great change in the 
atmosphere of the casemates, and would re- 
spectfully recommend that he be removed 



of Jefferson Davis, 269 

from the room he now occupies to some other 
apartment. I have no other suggestions to 
make as to his treatment. He has the best 
of food and stimulants. 

I remain, General, very respectfully, 
Your obedient servant, 
(Signed) John J. Craven, 

Bv't Lieut.-Col. and Surg. U. S. Vol's and C. M. O., 
Military District, Fort Monroe, Va. 

On this occasion, Mr. Davis referred to 
some remark of Miss Anna Dickenson, hos- 
tile to himself, which he had seen in the pa- 
pers ; also recalling that he had heard of the 
lady's honoring Fort Monroe with her pres- 
ence some six weeks before — he supposed to 
derive her inspiration from an actual view of 
his casemate, or possibly to catch a secret 
view of him through the admiring favor of 
Gen. Miles or some smitten officer. He had 
noticed that Miss Dickenson had figured 
largely upon the lecturing stage, and had un- 
deniable talent, but the talent rather of a 
Maenad or Pythoness than most of the mild 
virgins who worshipped Vesta and kept the 



270 The Prison Life 

fires of faith and charity forever burning on 
her pure altars. Woman's appearance in the 
political arena was a deplorable departure 
from the golden path which nature had 
marked out for her. The male animal was 
endowed with more than sufficient belligeren- 
cy for all purposes of healthy agitation ; and 
woman's part in the social economy, as she 
had been made beautiful and gentle, should 
be to soothe asperities, rather than deepen 
and make more rough the cross-tracks plowed 
in the road of life by the diverging passions 
and opinions of men. It was a revolutionary 
age ; transpositions and novelty were the fan- 
cies of the day, and woman on the political 
rostrum was only an outcropping of the dis- 
organized and disorganizing ideas now in con- 
trol of the popular mind. The clamor of cer- 
tain classes of women for admission to the 
professions and employments heretofore en- 
grossed by men, was another phase of the 
same malady. They demanded to be made 
self-supporting, forgetful that their most ten- 
der charm and safest armor lay in helplessness. 



of Jefferson Davis. 271 

Woman's office embraced all the sweetest and 
holiest duties of suffering humanity. Her 
true altar is the happy fireside, not the fo- 
rum with its foul breath and distracting clam- 
ors. Physically unable to defend themselves 
from injury or insult, their weakness is a 
claim which the man must be utterly base 
who disregards. The highest test of civili- 
zation is the deference paid to women. 
They are like the beautiful vines of the 
South, winding around the rugged forest- 
trees and clothing them with beauty ; but let 
them attempt living apart from this support 
and they will soon trail along the ground in 
muddy and trampled impurity. While woman 
depends on man for everything, man's love 
accepts, and his generosity can never do 
enough to discharge the delicious and sacred 
obligations ; but let woman enter into the 
ruder employments of life as man's rival, and 
she passes herself as a slave under those in- 
exorable laws of trade which are without sex 
or sentiment. Perhaps in one branch of 
medicine there might appear a fitness in her 



272 The Priso7i Life 

claim to matriculation ; but even in that 
branch,* circumstances of sudden difficulty 
and danger were of every-day occurrence, re- 
quiring the steadier nerves, cooler judgment, 
and quicker action of a medical man to deal 
with. If asked for his sublimest ideal of what 
women should be in time of war, he would 
point to the dear women of his people as he 
had seen them during the recent struggle. 
The Spartan mother sent forth her boy bid- 
ding him return with honor — either carrying 
his shield, or on it. The women of the South 
sent forth their sons, directing them to return 
with victory; to return with wounds dis- 
abling them from further service, or never 
to return at all. All they had was flung into 
the contest — beauty, grace, passion, ornament ; 
the exquisite frivolities so dear to the sex were 
cast aside ; their songs, if they had any heart 
to sing, were patriotic; their trinkets were 
flung into the public crucible ; the carpets 
from their floors were portioned out as 
blankets to the suffering soldiers of their 
cause; women bred to every refinement of 



of Jefferson Davis, 273 

luxury wore home-spuns made by their own 
hands; when materials for an army-balloon 
were wanted, the richest silk dresses were sent 
in, and there was only competition to secure 
their acceptance. As nurses of the sick, as 
encouragers and providers for the combatants, 
as angels of charity and mercy adopting as 
their own all children made orphans in de- 
fence of their homes, as patient and beautiful 
household deities, accepting every sacrifice 
with unconcern, and lightening the burdens 
of war by every art, blandishment, and labor 
proper to their sphere, — the dear women of 
his people deserved to take rank with the 
highest heroines of the grandest days of the 
greatest countries. Talking further upon 
woman, Mr. Davis stated his belief that when 
women prove unfaithful to their marriage 
vows, it will in almost every instance be found 
the husband's fault. Men throw their wives, 
or allow them to be thrown, into the com- 
panionship of male associates whom they 
know to be dissolute ; neglect them, while 

the illicit lover pays every attention, and then 

12* 



274 1^^^ Prison Life 

grow angry at the result of their own criminal 
folly. It is either this, or that the man has 
chosen, without sufficient inquiry, a woman 
whose unfitness for the relations of wife might 
have been readily ascertained. No woman 
will err if treated properly by a husband 
worthy of the name ; but she is the weaker 
vessel and must be protected. 



of Jefferson Davis. 275 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Mr, Davis on Sensation News. — The Condi- 
tion of the Negro, — Ge7t. Butler at Dritrys 
Bltff. — Bishop Ly7tch and the Sisters of 
Charity, — A Story after the manner of 
President Lincolit, 

September 3^. — Called upon prisoner, accom- 
panied by Captain Evans, 3d Pennsylvania 
Artillery, Officer of the Day. Had passed a 
comfortable night, the erysipelas again reced- 
ing, and the carbuncle commencing to slough 
out. Reported to General Miles : " Prisoner 
Davis slightly better this morning." Still 
complained of the unwholesome atmosphere 
of his casemate, pointing to some crumbs 
of bread which he had thrown to the mouse 
only a day or two before, now covered with 
mould. Made no reply to this, not knowing 



276 The Prison Life 

what would be the action of the authorities on 
my recommendation, though hoping, and, 
indeed, fully trusting that it would be favor- 
able. 

Mr. Davis referred to some financial frauds 
in Wall Street, then exciting much' attention 
in the Northern press, remarking that these 
insanities or epidemics of financial and other 
kinds of crime appeared by some unknown 
law to follow every period of great political 
excitement. Perhaps the average of crime 
was at all times the same in every given 
population — as many eminent statisticians 
had maintained — the apparent increase of 
viciousness only arising from the fact that 
during the greater excitement, whatever that 
might be, we could spare no attention to 
minor matters, and now they# struck us 
with a sense of novelty. The Northern press 
had been working with treble power and at 
fever-heat for some years, and would require 
another year to calm back into ordinary 
journahsm. Sensationalism was the neces- 
sity at present, and offences which would 



of Jefferson Davis. 277 

have been dismissed with a paragraph in 
the poHce reports four or five years ago, 
were now magnified into columns or a page 
of starthng capitals. The cruelty of dragging 
in family history and the names of relatives 
Mr. Davis dwelt upon, speaking with great 
sympathy of a venerable father whose grey 
hairs, heretofore without a blemish, were now 
sprinkled by the reports in Northern papers 
with the mire into which his son had fallen. 
With the criminal, and all his conscious 
aiders and abettors, the law and public 
opinion were entitled to deal ; but when 
journalism passed beyond this limit, and 
dragged before the gaze of unpitying millions 
the lacerated and innocent domestic victims 
of a son's or husband's crime, the act was so 
inhuman that to term it brutal would be to 
wrong the dumb creation. True, in tracing 
out and developing a crime, we had often to 
enter upon the otherwise sacred privacy of 
domestic relations ; and if anything therein 
found could materially forward the ends of 
justice, the lesser right would have to be 



278 The Prison Life 

sacrificed to' the greater. But the practice 
of dragging before the pubHc the whole 
history of a criminal in his non-criminal 
relations — his wife and wife's family, his 
father and father's family, their manner of 
life, circle of friends, and so forth — deserved 
reprobation. It is the innocent and pure — 
and always in the exact measure of their 
purity and innocence — who most suffer from 
such offences as the one he was noticing. 
To the guilty man himself, unless hardened 
beyond reach of conscience, or dread of 
shame, the explosion which consigns him to 
prison must be- a positive relief The agony 
of anxiety is over ; pride has suffered its 
benumbing shock, and the pain of its former 
protest is paralysed. In the solitude of his 
cell he is at peace, or in the companionship 
of the convict-yard there are none to mock 
his degradation. Mr. Davis spoke with great 
feeling on this matter, mentioning several 
cases which had come to his knowledge, and 
in particular the default of an army officer 
while he was Secretary of War. It had been 



of Jefferson D.ivis, 279 

a most painful case, for, up to the mo,iient of 
the exploitation, he had been on terms of 
intimacy with the defaulter's family. 

Speaking of army defaults, Mr. Davis re- 
marked that our Government seemed to have 
trouble with the officers appointed to take 
care of the negroes. The better plan would 
be to remit their care and future to the seve- 
ral States. None could manage the black for 
his own good and the public interest so well 
as those who had been reared with them and 
knew their peculiarities. Once free, the neces- 
sities of labor and the laws of supply and 
demand would interfere to secure justice to 
the black laboring class, even were there any 
disposition to deny it, which he did not be-- 
lieve. Mr. Davis said, judging from the in- 
evitable logic of the case and reports reaching 
him during the war, that the class of civilians 
who rushed South in the wake of our armies, 
professing intense philanthropy for the negro 
as their object, were about the most unsafe 
class to whom the destinies of any ignorant 
and helpless people, out of whom money were 



28o The Prison Lif^ 

to be made, could have been entrusted. Men, 
the most pure and upright in previous life, 
when suddenly given control of wealth for 
distribution to the ignorant and helpless, in 
too many cases, if not the majority, will gra- 
vitate, by force of protracted temptation, into 
corruption. He instanced the dealings of the 
Department of the Interior with the Indians 
— a hideous history, for which the country 
should blush, though not a little of the pecu- 
lations and extortions practised by our Indian 
Agents against the various tribes, had been 
placed on record. Mr. Davis then spoke of 
the various Indian nations with whom he had 
been thrown in contact during his earlier life 
when serving in the army, giving the habits 
and leading characteristics of each, but with 
a rapidity and fluency of Indian names which 
(the subject being new to me) I could not 
follow. The general spirit of his remarks was 
kind to the Red Man, lamenting his wrongs, 
and the inevitable obliteration of his race as 
a sacrifice under the Juggernaut of civiliza- 
tion. 



of yeferson Davis. 281 

Recurring to the management of the ne- 
groes by professed philanthropic civilians of 
the North, Mr. Davis said that all the best 
men of both sections were in the armies, and 
that these civilian camp-followers partook in 
their nature of the buzzards who were the 
camp-followers of the air. He said they re- 
minded him of an anecdote told in Missis- 
sippi relative to a professed religionist of 
very avaricious temper, which ran as fol- 
lows : 

Driving to church one Sunday, the pious 
old gentleman saw a sheep foundered in a 
quagmire on one side of the road, and called 
John, his coachman, to halt and extricate the 
animal — he might be of value. John halted, 
entered the quagmire, endeavored to pull out 
the sheep ; but found that fright, cold, damp, 
and exposure had so sickened the poor brute 
that its wool came out in fistfuls whenever 
pulled. With this dolorous news John re- 
turned to the carriage. 

" Indeed, John. Is it good wool — valua- 
ble ? " 



282 The Prison Life 

" Fust class. Right smart good, Massa. 
Couldn't be better." 

" It's a pity to lose the wool, John. You'd 
better go see ; is it loose everywhere ? Per- 
haps his sickness only makes it loose in 
parts." 

John returned to the sheep, pulled all the 
wool, collected it in his arms, and returned to 
the carriage. 

" It he's all done gone off, Massa. Every 
hair on him was just a fallin' when I picked 
'um up." 

" Well, throw it in here, John," replied the 
master, lifting up the curtain of his wagon. 
" Throw it in here, and now drive to church 
as fast as you can ; I'm afraid we shall be 
late." 

" But de poor sheep, massa," pleaded the 
sable driver. " Shan't dis chile go fotch him V 

" Oh, never mind him," returned the phi- 
lanthropist, measuring the wool with his eye. 
" Even if you dragged him out, he could 
never recover, and his flesh would be good 
for nothing to the butchers." 



of yefferson Davis, 283 

So the sheep, stripped of his only covering, 
was left to die in the swamp, concluded Mr. 
Davis ; and such will be the fate of the poor 
negroes entrusted to the philanthropic but 
avaricious Pharisees who now profess to hold 
them in special care. 

I remarked that this story reminded me of 
Mr. Lincoln's happy way of arguing his own 
position, while not appearing to argue at all. 

Mr. Davis said he had heard many of Mr. 
Lincoln's stories, or stories attributed to him, 
but knew not how much to believe. When a 
man once got a reputation of this sort, he was 
given credit for all the curious stories afloat ; 
nor could he conceive how a man so oppress- 
ed with care as Mr. Lincoln, could have had 
any relish for such pleasantries. Recurring 
to the subject of the philanthropic guardians 
of the negro, he asked me, if ever released 
from duty in Fort Monroe — which he as sel- 
fishly hoped would not be until he also was 
released, either by order of man or the sum- 
mons of death — to visit New England and 
count for myself how many doughty talkers 



284 The Priso7i Life 

for the negro, before the war, had worn sword 
on thigh or carried musket in hand during its 
continuance ? For the agitators of the South, 
as they were called, this could be said : that 
they had veritably staked life, property, and 
honor in support of their ideas. 

Of the negro race Mr. Davis spoke most 
kindly, saying that the irregularities into which 
they had been betrayed, arose from misinfor- 
mation spread amongst them .by these civilian 
philanthropists. They were taught that the 
General Government was about transferring 
to them in fee the estates of the Southern 
whites, thus enabling them to live in opulence 
and idleness (as they hoped) through all future 
time. Whatever might be the designs of the 
future, this had not yet been done ; and hence 
the disappointment of the negroes, who began 
to regard freedom as a much less blessing than 
they at first supposed. They took their idea 
of freedom from what they had seen of their 
masters, and imagined that to be free — pure 
and simple — implied as a concomitant all the 
comforts and luxuries which they had seen 



of yefferson Davis, 285 

their masters enjoying under the old system ' 
of labor. He was sorry for the poor negroes 
with his whole heart. The future might pos- 
sibly better their condition — in the next gene- 
ration, not in this ; but to him, the freed 
slaves seemed like cage-bred birds enjoying 
their first hour of liberty, but certain to pay a 
terrible penalty for it when night and winter 
came, and they knew neither where to find 
food or shelter. . 

Mr. Davis said that we — himself and the 
writer — had once, from my account, been op- 
posite each other in battle. It was on May 
the 1 6th, 1864, at the engagement which we 
called Drury's Bluff, but not properly so, the 
battle having its central point at the house of 
the Rev^ Mr. Friend, and both its wings rest- 
ing on Proctor's Creek. There were several 
lines of defence between that battle-ground 
and the works at Drury's Bluff. Beauregard 
had been fooling Buder for some days by 
skirmishing and falling back, in order to draw 
Butler on. Davis was present on the foggy 
morning of the decisive day — the day which 



286 The Prison Life 

rendered Butler permanently powerless for 
further evil, and hoped that morning to cap- 
ture our entire army. This would have been 
done if General Whiting (I think) had obeyed 
orders. His orders were to flank Butler, while 
the battle was going on in front, and cut him 
off from his base and works at Bermuda Hun- 
dred. This might easily have been done, but 
the orders miscarried in some manner, and 
General Butler, with the loth and i8th Corps, 
forming his force, escaped — though Mr. Davis 
heard we had hardly enough shovels in our 
army to bury the dead. General Terry, with 
the loth Corps, had been allowed to carry their 
exterior line of rifle-pits. Then, Beauregard 
massed his forces, charged out of his works, 
cut the 1 8th Corps to pieces, and very badly 
crippled the loth. 

I replied that I remembered all the inci- 
dents of the day very well, having been nearly 
captured by some of his cavalry bushwhack- 
ers while endeavoring to take care of my 
wounded near Chester Station, on the rail- 
road from Richmond to Petersburg. Nothing 



of yeffersmi Davis, 287 

but letting them count the nails in the hind- 
shoes of my horse had saved me. Returned 
about half an hour after that, and brought 
off my wounded without difficulty. Then 
related to Mr. Davis the incident of 
General Walker, of Beauregard's staff, 
which forms the introduction to this vol- 
ume. 

From this point the conversation diverged 
to the treatment of our wounded by the Con- 
federate surgeons. I said that complaint had 
been made, and with justice, as I could per 
sonally certify in some cases, that unnecessary 
amputations had been performed on wounded 
Union soldiers falling into the hands of Con- 
federate surgeons. Mr. Davis said this was 
undeniable ; but not more so with our men 
than with the boys of his own people. They 
had been obliged to accept as surgeons in the 
Southern army many lads who had only half 
finished their education in Northern colleges. 
Besides, their facilities for transporting and 
taking care of the sick were greatly deficient ; 
nor had they had proper hospital stores, nor 



288 The Pmson Life 

appliances for cure, in any such abundance 
as with us. To bunglers in the art of sur- 
gery, or men too hurried for scientific treat- 
ment, amputation is always a readier remedy 
than the slow process of splints, removing 
daily dressings ; and all he would claim on 
behalf of his surgeons was, that they had 
treatecl all the wounded. Confederate or Union, 
with impartiality; and that if too many ampu- 
tations had been performed on the one, they 
had likewise been performed on the other. 
He then referred to the courtesy of the medi- 
cal profession towards each other, as exhibit- 
ed when surgeons had been taken prisoners. 
They were always treated on his side, and 
so far as he knew upon our side, with the re- 
spect due to scientific non-combatants, whose 
business was the healing, not the wounding, 
art. It was by these little humanities war 
endeavored to soften the natural brutalities 
of its nature to the educated mind. 

Mentioned to Mr. Davis that I had once 
had a very interesting day's service exchanging 
some three or four hundred Confederates for 



of Jefferson Davis, 289 

about an equal number of our own wounded 
boys. Brigadier-General James F. Hall had 
been our officer of exchange, and Surgeon 
Bontecue my associate. We steamed up 
Charleston Harbor in the hospital-ship Cosmo- 
politan, and were met by Bishop Lynch on 
a vessel carrying our wounded. The Bishop 
had been extremely kind, receiving the bless- 
ings of our boys, who spoke in warm terms of 
his Christian humanity. So far as I could 
judge from that specimen, our wounded had 
not anything to complain of in their treat- 
ment — at least nothing which the necessities 
of their situation rendered avoidable. To this 
Mr. Davis replied in warm eulogy of Bishop 
Lynch, as also of the Sisters of Charity, not 
one of whom he could ever pass without 
raising his hat — an act of involuntary rever- 
ence. They had indeed been the silent 
angels of the war, carrying comfort and re- 
ligious faith to every couch of suffering. Of 
what they had done, history might make no 
mention ; but it would remain for ever en- 
graven upon the hearts of the tens of thou- 

13 



2 go The Prison Life 

sands they had helped and comforted. Em- 
blems of purity and mercy, no lives in the 
whole world could be more beautiful than 
theirs. Their hymns were an undertone or 
diapason of sacred melody through all the 
crash of arms and the harrowing chorus of 
groans. If it had been possible in his estima- 
tion to elevate the respect for woman, the con- 
duct of the Sisters of Charity would have 
done so. Meeting Bishop Lynch casually 
one day, he asked him in the usual common- 
place how the world went with him. Never 
should he forget — for it was but an echo from 
his own soul — the tone in which the Bishop 
replied, " This war, Mr. Davis ; this war. I 
am heart-sick, heart-sick, heart-sick ! " 



of Jefferson Davis. 291 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Treason, — State and National. — The Fish- 
Hawk and Bald-Eagle. — Mr. Davis on Sen- 
ator Benton, Ex-President Buchanan, and 
President Andrew Johnson. — Preparations 
to remove Mr. Davis to Carroll Hall. 

September 6th. — Called upon Mr. Davis once 
or twice, I remember, between the interval of 
my last date and this, but have lost notes. 
Called to-day, accompanied by Captain Tit- 
low, 3d Pennsylvania Artillery, Officer of the 
Day, and found prisoner in a more comforta- 
ble state of mind and body than he had en- 
joyed for some days. Healthy granulations 
forming in the carbuncle. 

Mr. Davis said the clamor about " treason " 
in our Northern newspapers was only an evi- 
dence how little our editors were qualified by 
education for their positions. None seemed 



292 The Prison Life 

to remember that treason to a State was pos- 
sible, no less than to the United States ; and 
between the horns of this dilemma there could 
be little choice. In the North, where the doc- 
trine of State sovereignty was little preached 
or practised, this difficulty might not seem so 
great ; but in the South a man had presented 
the unpleasant alternatives of being guilty of 
treason to his State when it went out of the 
Union, by remaining, what was called "loyal" 
to the Federal Government, or being guilty 
of treason to the General Government by re- 
maining faithful to his State. These terms 
appeared to have little significance at the 
North, but were full of potency in the South, 
and had to be regarded in every political cal- 
culation. 

Mr. Davis said he had been much inter- 
ested all the morning watching from the grat- 
ed embrasure, near which his bed lay, the free 
flight of fish-hawks, so plentiful during the 
summer in Hampton Roads, and some of 
which still lingered. The bird was a sacred 
guest, visiting the coast on particular days in 



of Jefferson Davis 293 

every season, and carrying with its appearance 
the glad tidings to so many fishermen that 
the shoals of shad, alewives — mossbunkers he 
believed we called them in the North — and 
blue-fish, were upon the coast. The fish- 
hawk or osprey was associated with the 
bald-headed eagle in such intimate relations, 
that to describe the habits of the one, neces- 
sitated some description of the habits of the 
other. 

The osprey or fish-hawk visited the coast 
in early spring, on the same day that the fish 
he had named made their appearance. It 
built its nest in some dead tree standing near 
a barn or house, long experience having 
assured it that it ran no danger from man. 
Its food was upon the deep ; and from the 
farm it dwelt upon, the osprey took nothing 
but the support of a single decaying tree. 
Here it huddled together in the forks nearest 
the ground, a couple of cart-loads of twigs 
and branches to form its nest — sticks varying 
in. thickness from a man's little finger to that 
of a cart-rung. On these were laid coatings 



294 The Prison Life 

of meadow-grass, and finally the feathers from 
its own breast, and so the nest was made and 
in it the eggs deposited. From this perch 
the fish-hawk mother kept a wary eye upon 
the waters, its male being close at hand, either 
to bring it food or protect the eggs or young 
during its absence. At the first ripple, be- 
tokening a shoal of fish in the distance, away 
sailed the male or female parent, poising over 
the surface of the waters on balanced wing 
until the fish — who had seen its shadow com- 
ing and struck for the bottom — should reap- 
pear. Then it folded its wings and dropped 
down like a bullet, reemerging presently with 
a shad, or" blue-fish, or alewife, varying in 
weight from half a pound to four pounds, 
clutched firmly in its talons — the head of the 
fish being always directly under its own head, 
which was not idle in picking out the eyes. 
Thus it sailed along the water for half a do^en 
yards until the grasp of its talons was made 
more secure ; then suddenly rose on perpen- 
dicular wing in the air and struck off for its 
nest near the barn-yard. 



of Jefferson Davis, 295 

But theie is another bird on the coast, 
added Mr. Davis, for whom these fishing 
operations have much interest. It is the bald 
eagle, who builds on some crag, if there be 
any crag within vision of the sea ; and if not, 
in the tallest tree that he can find, and farthest 
from the haunts of men. As he sees the 
fish-hawk sail forth, the eagle rivets his far- 
piercing eyes on the bird's motions. Then, 
as the osprey rises with his prey, the eagle 
shakes out the broad vans of his wings, looks 
at them to see that every feather is in place, 
and sullenly swoops upward into the air with 
the assurance of a conqueror. There is a 
wild scream from the osprey as it endeavors 
to rise higher, not satisfied as yet but some 
other fish-hawk with its prize may be the 
eagle's quarry. A few moments more and 
the hunt is certain ; the fish-hawk drops its 
prey, and flies out to sea with redoubled 
screams, while the grave eagle rapidly de- 
scends with unblinking eyelids upon the prize 
that has been dropped for his morning or 
noon repast, often seizing it before it strikes 



296 The Prison Life 

the ground or water, and proceeds to make a 
meal. " This is the history of these birds," 
concluded Mr. Davis, " and I have watched 
them with the most lively interest, though 
the circumscribed view from my inclosure 
gave me no means of observing more than 
the exploits of the gulls and fish-hawks, in the 
capture of their prey." 

This rule of prey and being preyed on, 
added Mr. Davis, appeared universal through 
nature. Up to the regal footstool of man, no 
beast, or bird, or fish, could be pointed out 
which did not prey on some minor creation 
of the animal or vegetable world, and was not 
preyed on in turn. Even with man, the 
stronger by nature preyed upon and absorbed 
the weaker ; and this, though a harsh philo- 
sophy, was the sum and result of worldly 
experience. The terms virtue and vice were 
comparative, not . absolute. The man of 
natural virtue might have no virtue at all. 
It is the man who restrains his passions when 
they are strongest, who is entitled to wear the 
crown. Mr. Davis then quoted, though rarely 



of Jefferson Davis, 297 

quoting poetry, the well known lines from 
Burns : — 

Who knows the heart — it's he alone, 

Decidedly can try us ; 
He knows each chord — its various tone, 

Each spring, its various bias ; 
Then at the balance let's be mute. 

We never can adjust it — 
What's done we partly may compute. 

But know not what resisted. 

A remark, that I hoped to see him soon 
resuming his walks on the ramparts, and read- 
ing less continually in a recumbent posture, 
called out several anecdotes from Mr. Davis 
relative to Senator Benton of Missouri, who 
was, he said, an incessant student, never quit- 
ting his room except in necessity, but taking 
all the exercise he thought needful with dumb- 
bells and calisthenic exercises of his own 
choice. Senator Benton had one peuliarity 
very amusing to those who knew him, his 
desire to contradict and make a case against 
such of his associates as were about speaking 
on some point peculiarly within their own 

13* 



298 The Priso7i Life>^ 

province of practical observation or education. 
Thus, if a Senator from California gave notice 
that on such a day he would introduce a reso- 
lution relative to gold-mining, or the Senator 
from Massachusetts gave similar notice rela- 
tive to the fisheries, Mr. Benton would imme- 
diately bury himself in his library and com- 
mence coaching up, or " cramming," as it was 
called in college, for the forthcoming debate. 
He w^ould read all varieties of books on the 
subject, arni himself with the most minute 
and comprehensive statistics, and thus in- 
tellectually equipped, take the field against 
whatever view the Senator who had given 
notice of the motion might advance. The 
result would be that a few home-thrusts from 
the lance of practical experience would bar 
all the delicate theories of Mr. Benton's 
authorities to shreds ; but these debates were 
useful as giving the Senate a sketch of the 
two sides which every question has — that of 
theory and fact. 

As Mr. Davis was speaking of the Senate, 
asked him his opinion of President Johnson 



of Jefferson Davis, 299 

to which for some moments he made no 
reply, apparently hesitating whether to speak 
on the subject or not. At length he said, that 
of President Johnson he knew no more than 
the papers told every one; but that of Mr. 
Johnson, when in the Senate, he would as 
freely speak as of any other member. There 
were, of course, differences between them, 
more especially just previous to the retire- 
ment of the Southern representatives from 
Congress. The position of Mr. Johnson with 
his associates of the South had never been 
pleasant, not from any fault or supercilious- 
ness on their side, but solely due to the in- 
tense, almost morbidly sensitive, pride of Mr. 
Johnson. Sitting with associates, many of 
whom he knew pretended to aristocracy, Mr. 
Johnson seemed to set up before his own 
mind, and keep ever present with him, his 
democratic or plebeian origin as a bar to 
warm social relations. This pride — for it was 
the pride of having no pride — his associates 
long struggled to overcome, but without suc- 
cess. They respected Mr. Johnson's abili- 



300 The Prison Life 

ties, integrity, and greatly original force 
of character ; but nothing could make him 
be, or seem to wish to feel at home in 
their society. Some casual word dropped in 
debate, though uttered without a thought 
of his existence, would seem to wound him to 
the quick, and again he would shrink back 
into the self-imposed isolation of his earlier 
and humbler life, as if to gain strength from 
touching his mother earth. In a word, while 
other members of the Senate were Democrats 
in theory or as their political faith, Mr. John- 
son was a Democrat of pride, conviction, and 
self-assertion — a man of the people, who not 
only desired no higher grade of classification, 
but could not be forced into its acceptance or 
retention when friendly efforts were made to 
that end. He was an immense worker and 
student, but always in the practicalities of life ; 
little in the graces of literature. His habits 
were marked by temperance, industry, courage 
and unswerving perseverance ; also, by invete- 
rate prejudices or preconceptions on certain 
points, and these no arguments could shake. 



of yefferso7t Davis, 301 

His faith in the judgment of the people was 
unlimited, and to their decision he was always 
ready to submit. One of the people by birth, 
he remained so by conviction, continually re 
curring to his origin, though he was by no 
means the only Senator of the South in like 
circumstances. Mr. Davis mentioned Aaron 
V. Brown, of Mississippi, who had been Post- 
master-General under President Buchanan 
and several others, who were of like Demo- 
cratic education with Mr. Johnson, but who 
seemed to forget, and in regard to whom it 
was forgotten by their associates, that they 
had ever held less social rank than that to 
which their talents and industry had raised 
them. Of Mr. Johnson's character justice 
was an eminent feature, though not uncoupled 
— as true justice rarely fails to be — with kind- 
liness and generosity. He was eminently 
faithful to his word, and possessed a courage 
which took the form of angry resistance if 
urged to do, or not do, anything which might 
clash with his convictions of duty. He was 
indifferent to money and careless of praise or 



302 The Prison Life 

censure when satisfied oi- the necessity of any 
line of action. But for his decided attitude 
against secession, he would probably have 
been given the place of Mr. Stephens on the 
Presidential ticket of the Confederacy. Mr. 
Stephens, indeed, held the same attitude up 
to the last moment; but on the secession of 
his State, had two alternatives of State or 
Federal " treason," as it was called, presented, 
and chose the latter. 

Mr. Davis remarked that Mr. Buchanan 
more fulfilled the European ideal of a Chief-of- 
State in his social relations than any Ameri- 
can since Washington. He was dignified, 
polished, reticent, and suave ; fond of lady- 
gossip and the atmosphere of intrigue ; a 
stickler for the ceremony of power. His mis- 
fortune was, as regarded his reputation North, 
that he could not forget in a month, and at 
the dictation of a party only representing the 
majority of one section, all those principles 
which had been imbibed in his youth and 
formed the guiding-stars of his career through 
over fifty years of public service. Of Mr 



of Jefferson Davis. 303 

Gushing, of Massachusetts, Mr. Davis spoke 
in terms of praise, eulogizing his general 
talents, and more especially his soundness as 
an exponent of Constitutional law. He also 
referred to Mr. George M. Dallas as his model 
for the externals of a diplomatic representa- 
tive, quoting something he had once known 
Mr. Cobden, of England, to say or write ; in 
substance, that Dallas reminded him of some 
stately courtier-portrait in an old picture-gal- 
lery, suddenly clothing itself with flesh and 
stepping down from the wall to again pace 
with living men, while preserving all the pas- 
sionless immobility of its pictorial experience. 
After quitting prisoner, proceeded, by invi- 
tation of General Miles, and in company with 
that officer, to make an inspection of the fort, 
for the purpose of selecting more healthful 
quarters for the State prisoner. Decided 
that rooms in second story of the south end 
of Carroll Hall would best suit — a building 
long used as officers' quarters, near the main 
sally-port, and in which nearly every officer 
of the old army was for some months quar- 



^ 



304 The Prison Life 

tered after quitting West Point, and before 
being assigned to general duty elsewhere. 
It is a tradition in and around Old Point 
Comfort, that both Grant and Sherman occu- 
pied in their day the very chambers selected 
for the second incarceration of Mr. Davis. 
As with the casemate, there were to be two 
rooms used for the prisoner's confinement. 
In the outer one a lieutenant and two soldiers 
were constantly stationed on guard, having a 
view of the interior chamber through a grated 
door. Opposite this door was a fireplace. 
To its right, when facing the door, a window 
heavily grated, and with a sentinel continually 
on duty before it, pacing up and down the 
piazza. Opposite the window a door leading 
into the corridor, but permanently fastened 
with heavy iron clamps, and in this door a 
sliding-panel in which the face of a sentinel 
was continually framed by night and day, ready 
to report to his officer the first sign of any 
attempt on the prisoner's part to shuffle off 
this mortal coil by any act of self-violence. 
It was of this face, with its unblinking eyes, 



of yefferson Davis. 305 

that Mr. Davis so bitterly complained in after 
days; but this is anticipating. The prisoner, 
as was said of Lafayette, is perhaps " not sick 
enough yet," and has to suffer some further 
weeks of exposure in his present casemate. 

The rooms being selected, General Miles 
gave orders to the Engineer Department for 
their speedy conversion from quarters to a 
prison, the piazza being prolongated and 
raised by a flight of stairs, so that access 
to the ramparts could be had by Mr. Davis 
without a descent to the ground-tier, which 
invariably caused a crowd to collect, with its 
usual unpleasant attendants of staring and 
whispering commentaries. 

September jtk. — Called on Mr. Davis, accom- 
panied by Captain Corlis, aide-de-camp to 
General -Miles, Officer of the Day. Found 
the health of prisoner not differing from the 
preceding day, and so reported to the General 
commanding in the bulletin required of me 
at this time. 

Told Mr. Davis, thinking it would cheer 
him and help to soothe his nervousness, that 



3o6 The Prison Life 

I had reason to hope^ he would soon be 
removed to more comfortable quarters. Was 
sorry for this afterwards, as the protracted 
and unforeseen delays in his removal only 
made him more painfully fretful in regard to 
the poisonous atmosphere of his present 
casemate. Had only a brief interview with 
Mr. Davis, there being much sickness in the 
fort then, and many demands upon my time. 
Mentioned that I thought in a few days of 
paying Richmond a visit ; General Alfred H. 
Terry, my old commander in the loth Army 
Corps, having now his headquarters at that 
place. I had spent many days in front of 
the city as Chief Medical Officer of the loth 
Corps, and Acting Medical Director of the 
Army of the James ; had once caught a 
glimpse of the promised land from the Pisgah 
of a battery on the south-east, and about four 
miles removed, but had not then been per- 
mitted to enter. Mr. Davis pleasantly replied 
that if Richmond were my land of promise, 
the Caleb and Joshua visiting it would 
carry back but slender bunches of grapes. 



of y.efferson Davis, 307 

His people had suffered terrible privations, 
but with the seventies and necessities of war 
removed, he hoped they would now be better 
supplied. 



3o8 The Prison Life 



CHAPTER XX. 

Visit to Richmond. — General Lee, — Mr, Davis 
on Horseback Exercise, — Macaulays Picto- 
rial Power, 

September wth, — Called on Mr. Davis, ac- 
companied by Capt. Bickly, 3d Pennsylvania 
Artillery, Officer of the Day. Found him 
convalescent in all respects, able to walk on 
the ramparts and in good spirits, considering 
his situation. Told him, as he was well, I 
was about starting that day for Richmond, to 
be gone about a week, and would be happy to 
carry any social messages he might wish to 
send any friends in that city. Mr. Davis 
asked me to call upon his former pastor, the 
Rev. Dr. Minnegerode, Rector of St. Paul's ; 
also upon other friends, giving me their 
names, who would be glad to receive me. He 



of yefferson Davis, 309 

requested me to make his afflictions in prison 
appear as light as possible, for they had suffi- 
cient troubles of their own, without borrowing 
more from his misfortunes. He also said 
Richmond had been a very beautiful city in 
the days gone by ; but what with years of mili- 
tary operations and the fire, he feared its ap- 
pearance must now be sadly altered. " Oh, 
the anxious moments I have spent in that 
city !" exclaimed Mr. Davis. " Cares that none 
can understand who have not been called to 
fill the first positions of responsibility in revo- 
lutionary times. What hopes and fears, tried 
by enemies without and murmurers or muti- 
neers within — though of the latter there were 
comparatively few. Taking all they suffered 
into view, my dear people stood firm and 
upheld my hands with a devotion and unani- 
mity for which I can never be too grate- 
ful. God bless them, one and all, and 
grant them the sustaining influence of Piis 
grace ! " 

Mr. Davis spoke the last sentence with 
great fervor, his thin hands clasped, and tears 



3IO The Prison Life 

brimming up in his eyes, though not allowed 
to run over. It was in such moments that 
his face, though not handsome, judged by any 
mere artistic standard, became very striking 
and noble in the delicate expression of its in- 
tellectual power and fervor. 

Mr. Davis became solicitous for removal 
from his casemate, and wished to know when 
his new quarters in Carroll Hall would be 
ready ? Would he be likely to be transferred 
there before my return t Told him I hoped 
to find him there on coming back, but could 
give no definite assurance — the engineers 
having to make some alterations in the rooms, 
and possibly some authorizing order being 
required from Washington. 

To question of Mr. Davis, replied that Mr. 
Clay was far from well, extremely nervous, a 
prey to dyspepsia and want of sleep, but not 
in any immediate danger. Clay was my com- 
plaining patient, but Mr. Mitchel was a model 
of patience and good-humor, though terribly 
afflicted at times with asthmatic difficulties. 
Mr. Davis answered with a smile, that Mitch- 



of Jefferson Davis, 311 

el was used to it — had been in this or a 
worse strait before ; but allowance must be 
made for himself and Clay, who were only serv- 
ing their apprenticeship to Baron Trencks 
profession. Took leave of prisoner, assuring 
him I would call on the friends he indicated 
in Richmond, deliver his messages of affec- 
tionate remembrance, and bring back all the 
social news. 

September 22d, — Called on Mr. DaVis for 
the first time since returning from Richmond, 
accompanied by Captain Titlow, 3d Pennsyl- 
vania Artillery, Officer of the Day. Found 
he had been inquiring for me several days, in 
consequence of suffering premonitory symp- 
toms of a return of the erysipelas to his face. 
Reported his condition to Major-General 
Miles, respectfully asking permission to call 
in Colonel Pineo, Medical Inspector of the 
Department, for consultation. 

Mr. Davis inquired about friends in Rich- 
mond, asking, with a smile, was he still re- 
membered there, or whether it had been found 
convenient to erase his name from the tablets 



312 The Prison Life 

of memory ? Assured "him that his friends 
appeared most solicitous for his welfare, espe- 
cially the ladies, who had overwhelmed my wife 
with attentions during our brief visit, as the 
only means of expressing their gratitude for 
any alleviations of his situation which my duty 
as his medical attendant had imposed. Told 
him the destruction from the fire had been 
great, but in less than two years the city would 
have retrieved a prosperity not only equalling, 
but surpassing any it had yet known. Over- 
looking Richmond from the top of Gamble 
Hill, the clamor of trowels and hammers 
everywhere resounded beneath me, and it 
seemed like an enormous beehive, so inces- 
sant was the industry. Mentioned that Gene- 
ral Terry, my old commander, had kindly 
placed the carriage of Mr. Davis at my dispo- 
sal during the visit; and that I had visited 
with much interest, and not without sympathy 
the beautiful ground of Hollywood Cemetery, 
where General J. E. B. Stuart and so many 
other distinguished officers of the late South- 
ern army now lie in graves, not nameless 



of yefferson Davis, 313 

indeed, but as yet with no enduring monu- 
ments. Also spoke of having seen Mr. Lyons, 
Judge Ould, the Grants, and many other 
friends of his during my stay at the Ballard 
House. 

Mr. Davis laughed about his carriage, and 
said that since some " Yankee" had to ride in 
it, he would prefer my doing so to another. 
During the war they had no time to build 
monuments to the illustrious dead — scarcely 
time enough or means enough to take care of 
the wounded living If their cause had been 
successful, the gratitude of a new nation would 
have built splendid mausoleums and trophies 
to those who had lost their lives in founding 
it ; but with the failure of the cause, this duty 
of piety and gratitude must now devolve on 
private associations of patriotic gratitude. 
General Jackson ("Stonewall") appeared to 
have some lively presentiment of death shortly 
before its occurrence, and had asked that his 
only monument might be a battle-flag hoisted 
over his grave until such time as the cause for 

which he fought was crowned with victory 

14 



314 1^^^ Prison Life 

and secure from aggression. Speaking of a 
message of condolence and cheer the Rev. 
D. Minnegerode had sent him, Mr. Davis 
spoke in warm terms of the learning, zeal, elo- 
quence, fidelity, and Christian courage of that 
gentleman. General Lee had occupied a pew 
in the same church, and unless when absent 
unavoidably in the public service, was one 
of the most regular and devout attendants. 
General Lee was, undoubtedly, one of the 
greatest soldiers of the age, if not the very 
greatest of this or any other country ; but had 
he drawn sword on the Federal side, must 
have been remitted to obscurity, under our 
system, in the first six months of the war. 
Nothing, however, shook the confidence of 
military men, competent to form a just opin- 
ion, in his superior qualifications for high 
command, and his career had nobly vindicated 
the calm estimate of professional judgment. 

Mr. Davis inquired anxiously what signs 
there were, if any, of his removal to the. new 
quarters I had mentioned before my Rich- 
mond visit } He was more than ever satisfied 



of yefferson Davis. 315 

of the unhealthiness of his casemate , and the 
nights were now growing so chill, that one 
might as well be condemned to sleep in a 
stone coffin — a little better, for when the coffin 
comes the body has no feeling. 

September i-i^d. — Called with Lieutenant 
A. H. Bowman, 3d Pennsylvania Artillery, 
Officer of the Day. Found the condition of 
Mr. Davis not materially changed, and so 
reported to General Miles. 

Prisoner renewed his questions about the 
proposed change in his place of confinement, 
begging me, if I knew anything, even the 
worst, that he was to be kept as now until 
death put an end to his sufferings, not to 
conceal it from him any longer ; that suspense 
was more injurious to him than could be the 
most painful certainty. Assured him that I 
had no further information. A place had been 
selected for his incarceration in Carroll Hall, 
the requisite changes in the rooms made, and 
I heard no reason for his non-transfer. If I 
did so, he should be informed immediately. 

Recurring to my Richmond visit, Mr. Davis 



3i6 The Prison Life 

made many minute inquiries relative to for- 
mer friends, the apparent condition of the 
trades-people in regard to prosperity, the 
social relations, if any were allowed, between 
the occupying army and the inhabitants. He 
said his people, having done all their duty in 
war, had now the two duties of forgetting the 
past, preparing to accept the future. One of 
their great troubles in agricultural districts 
must be the difficulty of getting draft animals 
— horses, mules, and oxen having been so 
nearly swept away by the war. With nothing 
to regret in the past but its failure, the fail- 
ure and its consequences should be accepted 
in good faith, and without a murmur. The 
future is always under the control of resolute 
men ; and with industry and the influx of 
Northern and European capital, which must 
soon be tempted by the preabundant natural 
resources in the South, there could be no 
reason why national prosperity should not be 
fully reestablished within half a dozen years 
— that is, if the Federal Government pursued 
a wise and generous course, allaying irrita- 



of Jefferson Davis, 3 1 7 

tions, and diverting the minds of the people 
from their unsuccessful sacrifices, by pointing 
out and encouraging the splendid rewards of 
industry. 

Mr. Davis renewed my attention to the 
steady deterioration of his health, which he 
regarded as chiefly due to the unfitness of his 
cell for a human habitation. His head had 
a continual humming in it, like the whizzing 
of a wound watch when its main-spring is 
suddenly broken. Little black motes slowly 
ascended and descended between his sight 
and whatever page he was reading, or object 
inspecting; and his memory likewise gave dis- 
tinct indications of losing its elasticity. The 
carbuncle, however, was quite well, having left 
a deep-red cicatrice where it had been, pre- 
cisely like the healed wound of a Minie bullet. 
Mr. Davis had not much flesh to lose on 
entering the fort ; but believed he must have 
lost what little of it could be spared while still 
preserving life. Was glad to see from the 
papers that General Lee had accepted the 
presidency of Washington College, in Vir- 



31 8 The Prison Life 

ginla. Happy would' be the pupils who 
would grow up under the tutelage, and with 
the noble exemplar before them of his pure 
life, Christian faith, stainless integrity, and 
varied acquirements. The crying sin of our 
present educational system is a neglect of the 
moral nature, while overloading the intellec- 
tual with premature food, which it must be 
strained in digesting. 

September 2^tk. — Called on Mr. Davis, 
accompanied by Captain Bickley, 3d Penn- 
sylvania Artillery, Officer of the Day. Pri- 
soner much better. The symptoms of a 
return of erysipelas gone. Had enjoyed his 
walk on the ramparts, and had seen a young 
lady on horseback who saluted him prettily as 
she passed. Did not know when raising his 
hat that he was bowing to his young hostess, 
but was informed she was my daughter. 
Remarked that she rode gracefully, sending 
her his compliments, and then commented on 
the little attention paid to horseback — the 
most healthful and delicious form of exercise 
— in the Northern States, and more especially 



of yefferson Davis. 319 

amongst the ladies, who from their sedentary 
habits would derive most benefit from its 
practice. When ladies unaccustomed to the 
saddle did begin horseback, they had some- 
thing like a mania for fast cantering, or even 
galloping, it being not only a pride but 
wonder to them at the termination of each 
ride that they were still in their seats. This 
was ungraceful, which should be a sufficient 
bar to its continuance ; it was also a strain 
both on the rider and beast. A short burst 
now and then along good parts of the road 
was very well occasionally, to warm the horse 
and quicken the rider's blood ; but a gentle 
trot or rack was the true gait for all who 
wished to derive health from this exercise — 
more especially ladies ; and yet the canter or 
gallop was their favorite pace. The Texan, 
Mexican, and Indian riders were among the 
best he had ever seen ; the men of these 
countries — for the women never ride, except 
on journeys of necessity, horseback as a 
pleasure or for health — being several grades 
beyond their advance of civilization. Mr. 



320 The Prison Life 

Davis then spoke of Indians dismounting 
and remounting while their ponies were in 
full gallop, swinging their bodies down and 
picking up stones, etc. ; but added there were 
none of these feats which he had not seen 
some of our dragoons do better and more 
certainly when once taught by the Indians. 
As a general rule, his people were better 
horsemen than those of the North. This 
was due partly to some remnant of cavalier 
origin in their educatioli and sentiments, but 
still more to the distance between plantations, 
the want of good roads, and their devotion to 
agricultural pursuits. Their cavalry had been 
superior to ours in the commencement of 
the war for these reasons, but their stock of 
horses gave out sooner, and towards the close 
of the struggle it became difficult to mount a 
Confederate regiment, except by capturing a 
regiment of their enemies. General R. Stuart 
had been styled the Prince Regent of the 
South; but the name, as in many other cases, 
had not been to his advantage. He was a 
rarely gallant and noble gentleman, well sup- 



of yefferson Davis, 321 

porting by his character the trad.tkn that 
royal blood flowed in his veins. Subsisting 
his command gave him great difficulty — the 
cavalry having to be scattered for winter 
quarters in the Shenandoah valley, and other 
places more remote, where forage was plenti- 
ful, thus relaxing its discipline and bringing 
it already somewhat jaded into the field on 
the return of spring. 

Mr. Davis then spoke of Macaulay's History 
of England with a freedom and unreserved- 
ness of admiration such as he rarely expressed. 
The portrait painting it contained was more 
vivid and subtle than anything on this side of 
Plutarch, and gave the surrounding circum- 
stances to serve as a frame with broader scope 
and more liveliness of panoramic effect. The 
sketches of Clarendon, Shrewsbury, Marlbo- 
rough, etc., etc., were not lifeless simulachre, 
but instinct with the turbulence and intrigues 
both of the social and political atmospheres in 
which they moved. No events of his actual 
life seemed more real than the life into which 
he was transferred by the absorbing power of 

T4* 



32 2 The Prison Life 

Macaulay's genius. The portrait of Marlbo- 
rough, Mr. Davis thought the great master- 
piece of the work, though drawn with a pencil 
not sufficiently tempered by allowance for 
the unsettled, revolutionary, and conspiratorial 
times in which the scenes were laid. 



of Jefferson Davis, 323 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Removal to Carroll Hall. — Some Ctirious 
Coincidences. — A Foolish Precaution. — In- 
teresting Letter from Mrs. Davis. — Adven- 
tures of the Family from Incarceration of 
Mr. Davis up to date. 

October 5///. — Visited Mr. Davis once or 
twice in the interval between this date and 
my last; but the memoranda of such calls 
cannot be found. Remember, however, that 
the fort was visited during the interval by- 
Colonel Louis H. Pelouze, U. S. A., of the 
War Department — an able, kind, and gallant 
young officer, whom I had previously known 
as Assistant Adjutant- General of the Sherman 
expedition at Port Royal. Colonel Pelouze 
called for a report of the health of the pris- 
oner, with my opinion as to the advisability 
or necessity of a change in his place of con- 



324 The Prison Life 

finement ; visited the aew qaarters in Car 
roll Hall, and directed General Miles — being 
thereto empowered by his instructions — to 
remove Mr. Davis from the casemate to his 
new and more pleasant abode. 

Called this day (October 5) with Captain 
Korte, 3d Pennsylvania Artillery, Officer of 
the Day, and found Mr. Davis already look- 
ing much brighter, exclaiming as I entered, 
" The world does move, after all." The panel 
in the side-door opening on the corridor, in 
which a sentry's face was framed, gave him 
some annoyance, and he referred again to 
Lafayette in connection with the torture of 
a human eye constantly riveted on his move- 
ments. If his wish were to commit suicide, 
such a precaution would prove wholly un- 
availing. It looked rather as if the wish were 
to drive him to its commission. He then re- 
ferred to some eminent French general, who, 
while a prisoner in England, procured and 
studied anatomical diagrams for the purpose 
of learning how life could be most certainly 
and painlessly lost, or with least disfigurement. 



of yefferson Davis, 325 

He discovered that precise part of the breast 
in which the heart, unprotected by any rib, 
lay nearest the surface. Sticking a small pin 
through this spot in the diagram, he next 
applied the diagram to his breast, and mark- 
ed, by a puncture, the exact place in which 
even the slight wound of a pin-prod would be 
fatal. Some time after, being transferred to 
France, and reincarcerated for a conspiracy 
against the life of the Emperor, he was found 
dead in his cell — the pin sticking in his heart, 
and the diagram, which he had never parted 
with, lying at his feet. This was an instance 
of how absurd it was to attempt preventing 
suicide by watchfulness. Even before being 
allowed knife or fork, there was no moment 
in which Mr. Davis could not have thrown 
down his burden of life, if wicked enough to 
have wished so rushing into the presence of 
his Creator. 

Mr. Davis said his transfer to Carroll Hall 
had brought back many curious reminiscences 
of his past life. In the very building he now 
occupied, he had once, as Secretary of War, 



J 



326 T/ie Prison Life 

extended the prerogative of clemency to an 
officer, since eminently distinguished on the 
Federal side, who was before (or sentenced by) 
a court-martial under grave charges as an 
officer, though not affecting his honor as a 
man. The coincidences of life are very strik- 
ing ; of which he gave several curious exam- 
ples, specially mentioning the simultaneous 
deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson 
on the 4th of July, 1826, the half century 
anniversary of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, which had been so largely their joint 
work. Jefferson's only wish when failing was 
to live to that morning, on waking up to which 
his first exclamation was : " It is then Inde- 
pendence Day; Lord, now lettest thou thy 
servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have 
seen Thy salvation ;" while the last words of 
Adams, his illustrious coadjutor, were: " It is 
a great and a good day — Jefferson yet sur- 
vives." To many similarly strange coinci- 
dences Mr. Davis called my attention; 
but only those are preserved, though I 
vaguely remember his reciting some curl- 



of Jefferson Davis, 327 

ous facts about the anniversaries of his birth- 
day. 

Mentioned to him that I had received an 
order from General Miles, through Captain 
Church, that morning, directing "the meals 
for prisoner Davis to be furnished him punc- 
tually at 8i A. M., and 3 and 8 o'clock p. m., until 
further orders." These hours, I knew, did not 
suit his wishes or appetite, but of course must 
be accepted. He never ate more than two 
meals a day, and desired them more equably 
distributed. 

Mr. Davis asked me some questions about 
the little young, big-headed, black boy, re- 
christened "Joe," though his true name 
was Thomas Bailey, who now carried over 
and delivered his meals. The boy was from 
the vicinity of Richmond, and had been for 
some time, with other members of his family, 
a refugee within our lines. It seemed natu- 
ral to him to be so served, and the food came 
kindlier than from the hands of a soldier, 
though indeed, upon the whole, he had been 
most kindly and considerately treated by offi- 



328 The Prison Life 

cers and men. Between the fighting men on 
both sides there was a generous and appre- 
ciative spirit ; it was the rancorous non-bellige- 
rents of the different sections — they who had 
skulked the test of manhood — ^who would 
now prove most difficult to be appeased. 
What they lacked of honorable record during 
the progress of the struggle, they would en- 
deavor to make up by ferocious zeal after the 
victory had been decided. The principle of 
compensation prevailed everywhere through 
nature ; and for the immense theoretical boon 
of freedom, with its consequent incalculable 
destruction of property, he feared his poor 
friends of " Joe's " race would have to suffer 
fearfully in material privations and an in- 
creased hostility of race. 

Something — I cannot tell what, but proba- 
bly the constituents of his breakfast, for he 
was very fond of fish — led Mr. Davis to speak 
of the manner in which our fresh-water fish 
are disseminated ; and his views, though pos- 
sibly old, were new to me and of much inter- 
est. We are often astonished by finding 



of Jefferson Davis, 329 

various breeds of fish appear in some acciden- 
tal cavity of the ground which was filled with 
water; also, water-lilies and other aquatic 
plants, though the new pond has no visible 
connection with any old pond supplied with 
such production. Mr. Davis explains this by 
supposing that the quawk, poke, bittern, and 
the various fresh-water ducks, play in the 
economy of nature's pisciculture a part simi- 
lar to that played by bees and butterflies in 
the world of flowers. Bathing and feeding 
in some older pond frequented by fish, their 
feathers become impregnated with the fecun- 
dated spawn, the seed of the water-lilies, and 
so forth, and these are transferred to the 
new pond on their first visit. The supposi- 
tion of spawn being sucked up into the clouds 
and descending in rain was not worthy of re- 
gard, though so generally accepted. If no- 
thing else, the cold of the atmosphere at the 
height of the clouds would kill whatever ani- 
mal life the spawn contained. The analogy 
of flower-life was entirely in favor of his ex- 
planation. 



330 The Prison Life 

October I'^th, — Called with Capt. Theo- 
dore Price, 3d Pennsylvania Artillery, serving 
on the staff of Major-General Miles, Officer 
of the Day. Mr. Davis in good health, but 
complained of being treated as though he 
were a wild beast on exhibition, not a prison- 
er of state awaiting trial. Ladies and other 
friends of persons in authority at the fort, 
were let loose on the ramparts about the hour 
of his walk, to stare at him as though he were 
the caged monster of some travelling menage- 
rie. He had endeavored to rebuke this dur- 
ing his last walk, when he saw a group of 
ladies waiting for his appearance, by turning 
short round and reentering his cell. Dear 
and valuable as was the liberty of an hour's 
exercise in the open air, there were prices at 
which he could not Consent to purchase it, 
and this was of the number. His general 
treatment Mr. Davis acknowledged to be 
good, though there were in it many annoy- 
ances of detail — such as the sentry's eye al- 
ways fastened on his movements, and the 
supervision of his correspondence with his 



of yefferson Davis, 331 

wife — unworthy of any country aspiring to 
magnanimity or greatness. 

The followino^ letter will be read with inte- 
rest as giving a most graphic view of what the 
prisoner s wife and family had to endure from 
his quitting them on board the Clyde, in 
Hampton Roads, down to the day of its date ; 
certain parts, reflecting upon individuals by 
name, I have taken the liberty to strike out, 
but the remainder of the letter is as written : 

Mill View (near Augusta, Ga.), October lo, 1865. 

Colonel John J. Craven, 

Chief Medical Officer, Fort Monroe, Va. 
My Dear Colonel, — Though you remain 
irrevocably dumb I am sure you hear me, and 
in addressing you I feel as if writing to one 
of my oldest and most reliable friends. Every 
letter from my husband comes freighted with 
good wishes for you, and thanks for all your 
kindness to him in his hours of anguish and 
solitude. Can you doubt that my prayers for 
you, and appreciation of your goodness, have 
been even greater than his, for I could do 
nothing but pray ? Mr. Davis sent me a carte 



2^2 The Prison Life 

de visite of your dear Anna, whose sweet face 
my baby knows and has been taught to kiss 
as her father's friend. The baby sends her a 
little fan, and a few white flowers, made in 
Augusta. I hope she may like them. Mr. 
Davis writes me that she has gone to the 
Moravian school, near Easton, where, I trust, 
our niece may have the pleasure of seeing her. 
I am rendered very anxious by the obsti- 
nacy of the erysipelas with my suffering hus- 
band. He complains — in answer to entreaties 
for an account of his condition without con- 
cealment — of a loss of sleep. I dread para- 
lysis for him, his nerves have been so highly 
strung for years without relief If you can, 
dear Doctor Craven, do entreat, and perhaps 
you may prevail upon the authorities to let 
him sleep without a light. He is too feeble to 
escape, and could not bear a light in his room 
when in strong health. The sequel of these 
attacks has always been an attack of amauro- 
sis, and in one of them he lost his eye. It 
first came on with an attack of acute neu- 
ralgia ; but it is useless for me to begin to tell 



of Jefferson Davis, 333 

you of his constitution. You must have seen 
pretty well its peculiarities, in the long and 
kind watches you have kept with him. 

I had hoped to relieve his mind by a full 
letter of personal narrative, but that letter he 
has not received. * ^ =^ * * 

When he was^taken from me on the ship, 
the provost-guard and some women detectives 
came on board, and after the women searched 
our persons, the men searched our baggage. 

Either they or the soldiers standing around 
took everything they fancied, and some things 
so large that I did not see how their conduct 
could escape the eye of the guard, and of the 
officer who superintended the search. They 
then told my servants that they could go 
ashore, if they did not desire to go to Savan- 
nah. The husband of my negro nurse forced 
her to go, and the white girl left from an un- 
willingness to be exposed to a Southern cli- 
mate. I entreated to be permitted to debark 
at Charleston, as my sister. Miss Howell, still 
continued to be ill, and I feared to return on 
the ship with a drunken purser, who had pre- 



334 The Prison Life 

viously required Colonel Pritcliard's authority 
to keep him in order ; and going back, Mrs. 
Clay, my sister, and myself, would be the only 
women on the ship — but this was refused. 
Acting as my own chambermaid and nurse, 
and the nurse also of my sister and Mrs. Clay, 
who were both ill, we started for Savannah. 
We had a fearful gale, in which the upper 
decks once or twice dipped water, and no one 
could walk ; but as I felt as wretched as could 
be, I did not fear a future state. 

God protected us from the fury of the ele- 
ments ; but the soldiers now began to open 
and rob our trunks again. The crew, how- 
ever, gave us some protection, and one of the 
officers In the engine-room gave up his cabin 
and locked everything we had left up In It. 
The Lieutenant of the 14th Maine, Mr. Grant, 
though a plain man, had the heart of a gentle- 
man, and took care of us with the greatest 
assiduity. Some of the soldiers and crew 
helped me to nurse, and saved me many an 
hour of wakefulness and fatigue. My little 
daughter Maggie was quite like an old woman; 



of Jefferson Davis, 335 

she took her sister early every morning — for 
the nights were so rough I could not sleep, 
because it was necessary to hold the infant to 
avoid bruising it — and with the assistance of 
our faithful servant Robert, who held her still 
while she held her sister, she nursed her long 
enough for me to rest. Little Jeff and I did 
the housekeeping; it was a fair division of 
labor, and not unpleasant, as it displayed the 
good hearts of my children. 

At the harbor of Charleston the sick began 
to improve. We procured ice and milk, and 
the day's rest, which the ship at anchor gave 
them, improved them much. 

Arrived at Savannah, we trudged up to the 
hotel quite in emigrant fashion, Margaret 
with the baby and Robert with the baggage ; 
I, with Billy and Jeff and Maggie in quite an 
old-fashioned manner, keeping all straight and 
acting as parcel-carrier, for we could not 
procure any carriage and must walk until we 
reached the Pulaski House, where, after a 
day and night, we procured comfortable 
rooms. The innkeeper was a kind man, 



336 The Prison Life 

and felt for my unfortunate condition. He, 
therefore, did everything in his power to make 
us comfortable. A funny incident happened 
the day I arrived there. 

A black waiter, upon answering my bell, 
and being told to call my man-servant Robert, 
replied very impertinently that " if he should 
see Robert he would give the order, but did 
not expect to see him." When Robert heard 
it, he waited till all the black servants had 
assembled at dinner, and then remarked that 
he should hate to believe there was a colored 
man so low as to insult a distressed woman ; 
but if so, though a peaceable man, he should 
whip the first who did so. The guilty man 
began to excuse himself, whereupon Robert 
said : " Oh, it was you, was it ? Well, you 
do look mean enough for that or anything 
else." From that time all the greatest assi- 
duity could do was done for me, first from 
esprit de corps, and then from kind feeling 

The people of Savannah treated me with 
the greatest tenderness. Had I been a sister 
long absent and just returned to their home, I 



of yejferson Davis. 337 

could have received no more tender welcome. 
Houses were thrown open to me, anything 
and everything was mine. My children had 
not much more than a change of clothing after 
all the parties who had us in charge had done 
lightening our baggage, so they gave the baby 
dresses, and the other little ones enough to 
change until I could buy or make more. 

Unfortunately for me, General ^ ^" ^ ^ *, 
who, I hear, was " not to the manor born," was 
in command of the district at the time. I 
asked permission to see him, and as I was so 
unwell that I could not speak above my breath 
with a cold, and suffered from fever constantly 
— the result of exposure on the ship — I wrote 
to beg that he would come to see me, for his 
aide had told me the night before that I could 
not be permitted to leave Savannah, and hav- 
ing been robbed of nearly all my means, I 
could not afford to stay at the hotel ; and, 
besides, as soon as I reached the hotel, detec- 
tives were placed to watch both me and my 
visitors, so I did not feel at liberty, thus 

accompanied, to go to private houses. 

15 



338 The Prison Life 

General * ^ *^ * s aide, whose animus was 
probably irreproachable, but whose orthogra- 
phy was very bad, was directed to tell me that, 
except under very extraordinary circumstan- 
ces, he did not go out of his office, and " all 
such" (which I afterwards found to mean my- 
self) " as desired to see him would call at his 
office." To which I answered, that I thought 
illness and my circumstances constituted an 
extraordinary case ; but that I was sorry to 
have asked anything which he " felt called 
upon so curtly to refuse," and requested to 
be informed what hour would please him on 
the following day, and I would do myself the 
honor to call upon him. Whereupon the same 
unfortunate, well-meaning, ill-spelling young 
gentleman wrote to me that " all such as de- 
sired might draw nigh from nine until three." 

I went, accompanied by General Mercer of 
Savannah. Need I say that General ^ * * * 
did himself justice, and verified my precon- 
ceived opinion of him in our interview, in 
which he told me he " guessed 1 could not 
telegraph to Washington, write to the heads 



of Jefferson Davis, 339 

of Departments there, or to anybody, .except 
through the regular channel approved ; " and 1 
could not write to my friends, "except through 
the Provost-Marshal's office ; " and that I was 
permitted to pay my expenses, but must re 
main within the limits of Savannah. 

With many thanks for this large liberty 
accorded so graciously, I bowed myself out, 
first having declined to get soldiers' rations by 
application for them to this government. 

In this condition I remained for many 
weeks, until, fortunately for me, General Birge 
relieved him ; who had it not in his power, 
however, to remove the restrictions any fur- 
ther than to take the detectives away, of whom 
I heard, but did not see. But General Birge 
permitted me to write unrestrictedly to whom 
I pleased, and appeared anxious, in the true 
spirit of a gentleman, to offer all the courte- 
sies he consistently could. 

My baby caught the whooping-cough, and 
was ill almost unto death for some days with 
the fever which precedes the cough ; and then 
she slowly declined. I did what I could to 



340 The Prison Life 

give her fresh air; but the heat was so intense, 
the insects so annoying, and two rooms such 
close quarters, that she and I suffered much 
more than I hope you or yours will ever know 
by experience. 

My most acute agony arose from the pub- 
lication and republication in the Savannah 7?^- 
publican of the shackling scene in Mr. Davis's 
casemate, which, to think of, stops my heart's 
vibration. It was piteous to hear the little 
children pray at their grace, " That the Lord 
would give father something which he could 
eat, and keep him strong, and bring him back 
to us with his good senses, to his little chil- 
dren, for Christ's sake ; " and nearly every day 
during the hardest, bitterest of his imprison- 
ment, our little child Maggie had to quit the 
table to dry her tears after this grace, which 
was of her own composition. 

I believe, Doctor, I should have lost my 
senses if these severities had been persevered 
in, for I could neither eat nor sleep for a week ; 
but opiates, and the information of the change 
effected by your advice, relieved me ; and I 



of Jefferson Davis. 341 

have thanked God nightly for your brave 
humanity. It is easier to fight with a revol- 
ver than to repeat unpleasant truths to a hos- 
tile and untrammelled power in the full induh 
gence of its cruel instincts. All honor to the 
brave men who fearlessly did so. 

Though I ate, slept, and lived in my room, 
rarely or never going out in the day, and only 
walking out late at night, with Robert for pro- 
tection, I could not keep my little ones so 
closely confined. Little Jeff and Billy went 
out on the street to play, and there Jeff was 
constantly told that he ^was rich ; that his 
father had " stolen eight millions," etc. Billy 
was taught to sing, "We'll hang Jeff Davis 
on a sour apple-tree," by giving him a reward 
when he did so ; and he made such good 
friends with the soldiers, that the poor child 
seeined to forget a great deal of his regard for 
his father. The little thing finally told me one 
day, " You thinks I'se somebody ; so is you ; 
so is father; but you is not; so is not any 
of us, but me. I am a Yankee every time." 
The rough soldiers, doubtless, meant to be 



342 The Prison Life 

kind, but such things wound me to the quick 
They took him and made him snatch apples 
off the stalls, if Robert lost sight of him for a 
moment. 

Finally, two womxCn from Maine contem- 
plated whipping him, because they found out 
that he was his father's son ; but " a man 
more wise did them surprise," and took him 
off just in time to avoid a very painful scene 
to them as well as to me. These thirn^s went 
on in the street — I refer only to the street- 
teachings — though these women were, with 
one other, dishonorable exceptions to the 
ladies in the house, until Captain ^ -^ * 
was ordered to Savannah on duty. He 
brought with him a person who I heard was 
his wife. As I never went into the parlor I 
did not see her, but my little son Jeff went 
accidentally into the room one day and inter- 
rupted a conversation she was indulging her- 
self in with one of the negro waiters, in 
which she was laying down " the proper pol- 
icy to be pursued towards Mr. Davis." 

The servant, having been brought up by 



of ycfferso7i Davis. 343 

a lady, felt very uncomfortable, and said, 
" Madam, there is his son." She called little 
Jeff up to her and told him his father was 
" a rogue, a liar, an assassin, and that means 
a murderer, boy ; and I hope he may be tied 
to a stake and burned a little bit at a time 
with light-wood knots. God forbid you 
should grow up a comfort to your mother. 
Remember, you can never be a gentleman 
while this country lasts. Your father will 
soon be hanged, but that death is too quick." 

The negro retired mortified, and sent my 
nurse to call little Jeff; and so, with his little 
face purple with mortification, and wet with 
tears from his streaming eyes, he came up to 
me, leaving the pious and patriotic lady to 
find another audience as congenial to her 
tastes as the first had been. 

I commended Jeff's gentlemanly conduct 
in making no reply ; cautioned him against 
ever persecuting, or distressing a woman, or 
a friend, if it took that shape ; made applica- 
tion for permission the next day to go away 
to Augusta ; was refused, and then prepared 



344 ^^^^^ Prison Life 

the children to go where they would not see 
such indignantly patriotic and prophetic 
females. Nothing, however, but the dread of 
intruding into a secret and sacred grief pre- 
vented my writing poor Capt. =* ^ =^ a sym- 
pathetic note, to condole with him upon the 
dispensation of Providence under which, in 
the person of his wife, he groaned. 

Hourly scenes of violence were going on 
in the street, and not reported, between the 
whites and blacks, and I felt that the chil- 
dren's lives were not safe. During General 
"^ ^ "* 's regime, a negro sentinel levelled his 
gun at my little daughter to shoot her for call- 
ing him " uncle." I could mourn with hope 
if my children lived, but what was to become 
of me if I was deprived of them } So I sent 
them off with many prayers and tears, but 
confidant of the wisdom of the decision. On 
the ship I understood a man was very abusive 
in their hearing of Mr. Davis, when my faith- 
ful servant Robert inquired with great inter- 
est, " Then you tell me I am your equal } 
You put me alongside of you in everything ? " 



of yejfersoii Davis. 345 

The man said " Certainly." " Then," said Rob- 
ert, " take this from your equal," and knocked 
him down. The captain was appealed to, 
and upon a hearing of the case, justified Rob- 
ert, and required an apology of the levelled 
leveller. 

Little Jeff is now at the endowed grammar- 
school, near Montreal, in charge of a Mrs. 
Morris, who has the care of ten little boys of 
good family, some of them Southern boys, 
and is happy, so he writes me. Mrs. Morris 
superintends his clothes and person, and 
teaches him his lessons. She was chosen by 
the faculty of the college for her high charac- 
ter. Maggie is at the Convent of the Sacred 
Heart, in the same place, where Gen. William 
Preston's little girls are, and very kind they 
are to her. A nun is always present with 
the small girls, who are separated from the 
large girls. Little Billy is his grandmother's 
one pet and idol, always with her, and in pret- 
ty good health. I have sent their dear father 
a picture of Maggie's school, and a little 

scribbled letter from his big boy to me. 

« 15* 



346 The Prison Life 

As soon as the dear children were gone, I 
hoped with my Httle weak baby (you see I am 
^ery honest with you) to make my escape out 
of the country to them ; but when, upon com- 
ing to Augusta — which General Steadman 
gave me leave to do immediately upon his 
accession to command, through the very kind 
intercession of General Brannen, who suc- 
ceeded General Birge — I was informed by a 
gentleman who said he had been told so au- 
thoritatively, that " if I ever quitted the coun- 
try under any possible object, I would — no 
matter what befell Mr. Davis — never be al- 
lowed to return." I abandoned the inten- 
tion. As might makes right in my case, and 
as my sister's health had failed rapidly in the 
South, and as she is a girl of rare judgment 
and good feeling, I sent her with my nephew 
to New York en route for Canada to take care 
of my devoted mother, who is now too old 
and delicate to be left alone. 

My two nephews joined me here about a 
month ago and desired to take me home with 
them ; but finding that the length of my tether 



of Jefferson Davis. 347 

only permitted me to browse " in Georgia," 
they stayed two days and were then forced to 
go home to their famiHes. My baby has 
grown fat and rosy as the " Glory of France :" 
a rose which Mr. Davis recollects near the 
gate of our home. Under the kind treat- 
ment I have received, the fine country air 
(five miles from Augusta) and the privacy, I 
have also grown very much better ; can sleep 
and eat, and begin to feel alive again with the 
frosty air, ai;d loving words, and letters which 
meet me here as in Savannah. 

Mr. Geo. Scheley is my host, and never 
had a child in her father's home a warmer 
welcome. I am at no expense, and entirely 
gladly welcome. The little baby eats hominy 
and drinks fresh milk; grows in grace and 
weight ; talks a little, and being more gentle 
than litde Jeff's friend, Mrs. * ^ * =^, is a 
great pet with all. The difficulty is to accept 
all the invitations I get, or to refuse them 
rather — the whole Southern country teeming 
with homes, the doors of which open wide to 
receive me; and people are so loving, talk 



34^ ^/^^ Priso7i Life 

with such streaming eyes and broken voices 
of him who is so precious to them and to me, 
that I cannot reaHze I do not know them inti- 
mately. Mr. Davis should dismiss all fears 
for me. Money is urged upon me — every- 
thing. I only suffer for him. I do not meet 
a young man who fails to put himself at my 
disposal to go anywhere for me. I cannot 
pay a doctor's bill, or buy of an apothecary. 
" All these things are added unto me." 

If I have written you too long a letter, my 
dear sir, it is because I have not collected my 
facts, but sought " quid scribam, non quem 
ad modum." Please give your good wife as 
much gratitude as she will receive from me ; 
and I cannot permit you to measure it for 
yourself. My children shall rise up and call 
her blessed. May God show her and hers 
that mercy which you have been the means 
of bringing to my poor husband, and you will 
be blessed indeed. This is the constant 
prayer of your grateful friend, 

Varina Davis. 



of yeffersoit Davis. 349 



CHAPTER XXII. 

A New Regiment on Guard. — Ordered not to 
Communicate with Mr. Davis^ save on 
" Strictly Professional Matters'' — The Cor- 
respondence about Prisoner s Overcoat. . 

October 20th. — Called on Mr. Davis, accom- 
panied by Captain Titlow, 3d Pennsylvania 
Artillery, Officer of the Day. His health ap- 
peared satisfactory, and his change of quarters 
had already been of evident benefit. 

Some remarks in the papers led him to say, 
that nothing could be more unjust than to ac- 
cuse the South of having wished the destruc- 
tion of the Constitutional Union of the States. 
It was not amongst his people that the Con- 
stitution had been continually denounced as 
a " bond with death and covenant with hell." 
To them the government had invariably been 
described as the "most beneficent and just 



350 The Prison Life 

government upon the face of the earth ; " and 
it was only when what they regarded as a sec- 
tional Presidential ticket had been elected, and 
their rights of liberty and property threatened, 
that they rose to vindicate the reserved rights 
of State sovereignty, under a constitution 
which they believed to have been subverted. 

Speaking of Mr. Bancroft, whose history of 
the United States he much read and admired, 
frequently marking passages of it with his 
finger-nail, as a pencil was denied him, Mr. 
Davis said it was appalling to contemplate the 
extra labors which must be imposed on future 
historians by the increased activity of the press 
in these latter days, and the looseness with 
which their reports were made. It will require 
the labors of several lives to make the mere 
sifting of materials from the columns of the 
press, unless the historian shall boldly go to 
work by discarding all such authorities, and 
confining his scrutiny to the ofiicial reports on 
either side. He was glad to see that the vari- 
ous provisional State governments of the 
South were accepting the reconstruction policy 



of Jefferson Davis. 351 

of President Johnson, practically and in good 
faith. Universal amnesty — though he did not 
ask it for himself — with restoration of property 
and civil rights to all willing to take the oath 
of allegiance, would speedily restore to the 
whole country so much of harmony and homo- 
geneity as was now possible, and so much 
needed by its political and financial interests. 
No apprehensions need be felt from any war 
with England or France, unless the South 
should be permanently alienated by despair 
of tolerant terms. Even then, as an American 
with no other country left him, he would be 
for unanimous support of the country against 
its European enemies, but the same sentiments 
might not be likely to prevail amongst the 
masses of his people. They had in their blood 
the faults of a Southern sky, "sudden and 
quick in quarrel, jealous of honor." The 
question of negro soldiers was not a new one 
in this war. Such class of soldiers had twice 
before been enlisted in the history of the 
country, but not trusted upon active service 
on either occasion ; and when he had been in 



352 The Prison Life 

the War Department, a proposition had been 
urged by several eminent officers of the regu- 
lar army for garrisoning the defences of the 
Southern coast with regiments of blacks, on 
the ground that they could resist the exposures 
of the climate better. 

October 2^th, — Called upon Mr. Davis, 
accompanied by Captain Korte, 3d Pennsyl- 
vania Artillery, Officer of the Day. Mr. 
Davis had been for some time complaining 
that his light suit of grey tweed was too thin 
for the increasing cold of the days on the 
ramparts of the fortress, and finding that his 
measure was with a tailor in Washington, I 
requested a friend of mine to call there and 
order a good heavy black pilot-cloth overcoat 
for the prisoner, and that the bill should be 
sent to me. Also, ordered from a store in 
New York some heavy flannels to make Mr. 
Davis comfortable for the winter. These 
acts, to me appearing innocent, and even 
laudable, caused great trouble, as may be seen 
by the following correspondence, finally lead- 
ing to a peremptory order which almost alto- 



of yefferson Davis 353 

gether broke off the previously free relations 
I had exercised with Mr. Davis. This, how- 
ever, will more properly appear further on, 
when the various letters on the subject are 
inserted under their proper date. 

October 2gtk. — Called, accompanied by 
Captain R. W. Bickley, 3d Pennsylvania 
Artillery, Officer of the Day, who announced 
that his regiment was under orders to quit 
the fort on the last day of the month, pre- 
paratory to being mustered out of the service. 
Mr. Davis replied with much feeling, express- 
ing his regret that a regiment whose officers 
had shown him so much genuine kindness 
within the limits of their duty, and wliom he 
had come to regard more as friends than 
custodians, should be about quitting him — 
though he had no doubt of being treated with 
equal consideration by the officers of the in- 
coming regiment, the 5th United States 
Artillery, with many of whose officers he had 
been acquainted before the war. To a pri- 
soner new faces were never pleasant, unless 
the old faces had become intolerable from 



354 ^^^^ Priso7i Life 

cruelty, which had been the reverse of this in 
his case. No matter what his fate might be 
in the future, he could never forget the 3d 
Pennsylvania Artillery. 

Mr. Davis also referred to the kindness of 
Captain Grisson, of the staff of General Miles, 
in regard to a little matter w^iich, though 
trivial in itself, had given him much annoy- 
ance. It arose in this manner: he had re- 
quested a barber to be sent to him, as his hair 
was growing too long. Captain Grisson 
brought a hair-dresser, but on the termination 
of the operation said it was the order of 
General Miles that the lopped hair should be 
carried over to headquarters. To this Mr. 
Davis objected, first from having a horror of 
having such trophies or " relics " paraded 
around the country, and secondly because he 
wished to send it to Mrs. Davis ; this latter 
probably an excuse to avoid the former dis- 
agreeable alternative. Captain Grisson replied 
that his orders were peremptory, but if Mr. 
Davis would fold the hair up in a newspaper 
and leave it on a designated shelf in the case- 



of Jefferson Davis 355 

mate, the Captain would step over to head- 
quarters, report the prisoner's objections, and 
ask for further orders. This was done, and 
Captain Grisson soon returned with the glad 
tidings that the desire to obtain possession of 
these "interesting relics" had been abandoned. 
Mr. Davis also spoke with great interest of a 
volume called the Schonburgh Cotta Family, 
which had been sent for his perusal by a lady 
in Richmond. It had been brought, I believe, 
by the Rev. Mr. Minnegerode, when that gen- 
tleman called at Fort Monroe on the day of 
my return from Richmond to administer the 
Sacrament to his former parishioner. 

October 313-/. — Called with Captain Titlow, 
Officer of the Day, the last officer of the 3d 
Pennsylvania Artillery, who had charge of the 
prisoner. Mr. Davis renewed his friendly and 
grateful messages to the officers of the regi- 
ment, specifying several by name, and desiring 
to be remembered by them. As it stormed, 
there had been a fire built in the grate, and 
Mr. Davis spoke of its cheering effect both on 
body, eye, and mind; the stove being both 



35 6 The Prisoji Life 

injurious and unpleasant, as it concealed the 
best part of the fire, which was its rich, home- 
like, and enlivening appearance. It had al- 
ways appeared natural to him that savage 
nations, in the absence of revealed religion, 
should adopt fire as their god. It was the 
nearest approach in the material world to the 
invisible spirit of life. Negroes and Indians, 
even in summer-time, would build a fire and 
squat down around it, forgetting all the 
demands of labor and amusement. Indeed, 
one of the earliest instincts of humanity, 
whether civilized or savage, was to collect 
around a bonfire in our childhood. 

The chano;e to Carroll Hall had been of the 
greatest benefit to the prisoner's health, the 
air being purer as it was loftier, his own room 
more cheerful, and only subject to the draw- 
back that he had human eyes from three di- 
rections continually fixed upon him through 
the grated door entering his room, the win- 
dow opening on the piazza at his left, and the 
door opposite the window, with an open panel 
in it, opposite which stood a sentry. 



of Jefferson Davis, 357 

November \st. — Called with Brevet-Captain 
Valentine H. Stone, 5th U. S. Artillery, First 
Officer of the Day, from the new regiment 
garrisoning the fort. Mr. Davis appeared out 
of sorts — not body-sick, but heart-sick, as he 
said himself. He appeared to scrutinize Cap- 
tain Stone with great care, asking him all 
about his term of service, his early education, 
etc., as if anxious to .find out everything ascer- 
tainable about the new men into whose hands 
he had fallen — an operation repeated with 
each new Officer of the Day who called to 
see him. Indeed this habit of analysis ap- 
peared universal with the prisoner. It seem- 
ed as if he put into a crucible each fresh 
development of humanity that crossed his 
path, testing it therein for as long as the in- 
terview lasted, and then carefully inspecting 
the ingot which was left as the result. That 
ingot, whether appearing to him pure gold oi* 
baser metal, never lost its character to his 
mind from any subsequent acquaintance. He 
never changed his opinion of a man, or so 
rarely as merely to j^rove the rule by its ex- 



35^ The Prison Life 

ception ; and this was one of the faults alleged 
against him as a leader by his opponents. It 
may have been pride that would not abandon 
a judgment once formed; or, more probably, 
that Mr. Davis had been taught by his expe- 
rience of the world, how rarely we improve 
the correctness of such estimates by subse- 
quent alterations. In our first judgment, it is 
the nearly infallible voice of instinct, un- 
biassed by any other causes, which delivers the 
verdict ; while in closer acquaintance after- 
wards, the acts of the hypocrite, or the fami- 
liarity which so blunts and deadens our per- 
ceptions, may interfere to lead us astray. 

Mr. Davis said it was scandalous that gov- 
ernment should allow General Miles to review 
his letters to his wife. They had to pass 
through the hands of Attorney-General Speed, 
who should be a quite competent judge of 
offensive matter, or what was deemed offen- 
sive. General Miles had returned to him 
several pages of a letter written to Mrs. Davis, 
containing only a description of his new prison 
in answer to her inquiries, the General de- 



of yefferson Davis, 359 

daring such description to be objectionable 
perhaps suspecting that if told where he was 
confined, Mrs. Davis would storm the fort 
and rescue him vi et armis. This was both 
absurd and cruel — one of those acts of petty 
tyranny which was without excuse, because 
without any sufficient object. In regard to 
attempts at escape, General Miles might give 
himself no uneasiness. Mr. Davis desired a 
trial both for himself and cause, and if all the 
doors and gates of the fort were thrown 
open he would not leave. If anywhere in the 
South the Confederate cause yet lived, the 
thing would be different; but as that cause 
was now wrapped in the shroud of a military 
defeat, the only duty left to him — his only 
remaining object — was to vindicate the action 
of his people, and his own action as their 
representative, by a fair and public trial. 

November \oth, — This day, in consequence 
of reports in some of the papers that an over- 
coat had been ordered for Mr. Davis from 
Mr. S. W. Owen, his former tailor, doing 
business at Washington, and a further report 



o 



60 The Prison Life 



that I had been the medium for ordering it, 
the following letter was sent to me : 

Headquarters, Military District of Fort Monroe ) 
Fort Monroe, Va., November 18, 1865. ) 

Sir : — The Major-General commanding di- 
rects me to inquire of you if any orders have 
been given by you, or through you, for an 
overcoat for Jefferson Davis ? 

Such a report has appeared in the papers 
Very respectfully, 

A. V. Hitchcock, 

Captain and Provost-Marshal. 

To which, on the same date, I returned the 
following answer : 

Office of Post Surgeon, Fort Monroe, Va., ) 
November 10, 1865. ) 

Captain : — I have received the communi- 
cation dated November loth, Headquarters 
Military District, Fort Monroe, in which the 
Major-General commanding, directs you to 
inquire if any orders have been given by me, 
or through me, for an overcoat for Jefferson 
Davis. 

In reply, I would respectfully state that I 



of Jefferson Davis 361 

did order a thick overcoat, woollen drawers, 
and under-shirts, for Jefferson Davis. I found 
as the cold weather approached he needed 
thick garments, the prisoner being feeble in 
health, and the winds of the coast cold and 
piercing. I have the honor to be. 

Very respectfully. 

Your obedient servant, 
(Signed) John J. Craven, 

B'vt Lieut.-CoL, Surg. U.S.V 

Capt. A. O. Hitchcock, A. D. C. 

That any objection to my action in the 
matter should have been made, was about the 
last thing I should have expected — the pris- 
oner's health being under my charge, and 
warm clothing for cold weather being obvi- 
ously one of the first necessities to a patient 
in so feeble a condition. Let me add, that, 
Mr. Davis had never asked for the warm 
clothing I deemed requisite, and that sending 
for it, and insisting upon its acceptance, had 
been with me a purely professional act. In 
the valise belonging to Mr. Davis, which was 

r6 



362 The Prison Life 

kept at the headquarters of General Miles, no 
heavy clothing could be found, merely con- 
taining a few articles of apparel chiefly de- 
signed for the warm climate of the South. 
General Miles, however, took a different view 
of my action, to judge from the following 
letter : 

Headquarters, Military District, Fort Monroe, Va., \ 
Fort Monroe, Va., November i8, 1865. f 

Colonel : — The Major-General command- 
ing directs that, in future, you give no orders 
for Jefferson Davis, without first communi- 
cating with these Head Districts. 

Also, that in future, your conversations 
with him will be confined strictly to profes- 
sional matters, and that you comply with the 
instructions regarding the meals to be fur- 
nished to prisoners Davis and Clay, and have 
them delivered more promptly. Also, report 
the price paid for Mr. Davis's overcoat, and 
by whom paid. 

A. O. Hitchcock, 

Capt. and A.D.C 

BVt Lieut.-Col. J. J. Craven, 

Post Siirtreon. 



of Jefferson Davis, 363 

This order I then regarded as cruel and 
unnecessary, nor has subsequent reflection 
changed my opinion. The meals for Mr. 
Davis I had sent at hours to suit his former 
habits and present desires — two meals a day 
at such time as he felt most appetite. I was 
now ordered to send his meals three times a 
day, and at hours which did not meet his 
wishes, and were very inconvenient to my 
family, his meals being invariably sent over 
at the same hour I had mine. The order to 
abstain from anything but professional conver- 
sation was a yet greater medical hardship, as 
to a man in the nervous condition of Mr. 
Davis, a friend with whom he feels free to 
converse is a valuable relief from the moodi- 
ness of silent reflection. The orders, how- 
ever, I felt bound to accept and carry out in 
good faith ; and hence, from this point, my 
memoir must unavoidably lose much of its 
interest. The next step in this difficulty will 
be seen in my annexed letter, dated the day 
following the receipt of my last communica- 
tion from General Miles : 



364 The Prison Life 

Capt. a. O. Hitchcock, A. D. C: 

Captain: — I have the honor to acknowledge 
the receipt of your communication dated Head- 
quarters, Mihtary District, Fort Monroe, Va., 
Nov. 18, 1865; and in answer to your inquiry 
concerning the cost of the cc^at ordered by me 
for Mr. Davis, I would say : 

That I do not know the cost of the coat ; I 
have not yet received the bill. As soon as 
received, I will forward it to the Major-Gene 
ral commanding. I do not know that any 
person paid for the coat, having directed that 
the bill should be sent to me when order- 
ing it. 

I remain, Captain, very respectfully, 
John J. Craven, 

Bv't Lieut.-Col. and Post Surg, and Chief Medical Officer, 
Military District. Fort Monroe, Va. 

The next day — on the 20th, though dated 
the 17th— I received from Mr. Owen the sub- 
note in reply, as will be seen, to a letter of 
inquiry addressed to him some nine or ten 
days previously: 



of Jefferson Davis, 365 

Dr. J. J. Craven, U. S. A., 

Chief Medical Director, 
Fortress Monroe, Va. : 
Dear Sir, — In reply to your favor of the 
14th inst, I would say the price of the coat 
sent you was $125 ; and as regards the ques- 
tion you ask about who paid for the coat, par- 
ties called at the store and desired to pay 
for it. Not knowing your wish on that sub- 
ject, the money was left here until such time 
as I should hear from you about payment 
for it. 

Yours respectfully, 
(Signed) S. W. Owen, 

Per Russell. 

To conclude this correspondence, the two 
following letters will explain themselves : 

Headquarters, Mil. Dist., Fort MonroCj Va., 
December 14, 1865. 

Bv't Lt.-Col. J. J. Craven, 

Surgeon U. S. V. : 
Sir : — The General commanding directs me 



306 The Prison Life 

to ask if the overcoat furnished the prisoner 
Davis has been paid for. 

I am, very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 
John S. McEwan, 

Capt , A. D. C, and A. A. A. G. 

Fort Monroe, Va., December 15, 1865. 

Capt. John S. McEwan, 

A. D. C, and A. A. A. G. : 

Sir : — I have the honor to acknowledge the 
receipt of your communication, bearing date 
December 14th, 1865, stating that the Major- 
General commanding directs you to ask if 
the overcoat furnished Jefferson Davis has 
been paid for. In reply, I would respectfully 
state, that parties, without my approval, know- 
ledge, or consent, called upon, S. W. Owen, 
the tailor, interfered and interested themselves 
in the coat, leaving on deposit the price for 
the same. Seeing the coat was unlike the 
one I had ordered (a plain, black, pilot over- 
coat), I interested myself no further in the 
matter, leaving Owen, the tailor, to receive or 
refuse the money as he saw fit. He has re- 



of yefferso7i Davis. 3^7 

ceived no money from me, neither did I au- 
thorize him to receive the pay for the over- 
coat from another. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, . 
John J. Craven, 

Brevet Lieut.-Col, Surg. U. S. V., and Post Surgeon. 



368 The Prison Life 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

' General Summary in Conchision. — The Cho" 
racier of Mr. Davis, — Let 21s be Merci- 
ful ! 

And now my diary of a most interesting 
patient ceases, for under the orders dated 
November i8th, contained in the close of the 
preceding chapter, I could hold no conversa- 
tion with him except on " strictly professional 
matters," up to the date of my being relieved 
from duty at the fort, which took place near 
the end of December, 1865, and these would 
be of no interest to the public, even were I at 
liberty to reveal them. Mr. Davis occasion- 
ally suffered in health during the last month 
of my remaining his medical attendant, but 
the history of his trifling ailments per se, and 
unrelieved by any conversation, would not 



of yefferson Davis, 369 

form either a pleasant or amusing record. 
With the officers of the 5th U. S. Artillery, 
as with his previous friends of the 3d Penn- 
sylvania, he continued to have most agreeable 
relations — Major Charles P. Muhlenburgh, 
Captain S. A. Day, and many others, display- 
ing both generosity and consideration in their 
treatment of the distinguished captive. In- 
deed, it was a remark which must have been 
forced on every observer, both during the war 
and since, that it is amongst the non-belli- 
gerents of the North — the men, one would 
think, with least cause to hate or oppress our 
recent Southern enemies — that we must look 
for those who appear actuated by the most 
vindictive feelings. 

It was not my intention to have published 
this narrative until after the trial of the pri- 
soner; but on submitting the matter to friends, 
whose judgment I relied upon, it was decided 
that there was no material in these pages 
which could bias or improperly interfere with 
public opinion, or the due course of justice. 

It must be remembered that during the past 

16* 



370 The Prison Life 

year Mr. Davis has lain a silent prisoner in 
one of our strongest forts, unable to reply by 
so much as a word to the myriad assaults 
which have been made both on his private 
character and public course. This is abso- 
lutely the first statement in his favor — if so it 
can be regarded — which the Northern press 
has yet given to the world ; and the case 
against that prisoner must indeed be weak 
which cannot bear allowing a single voice to 
be raised in his defence, while seven-eighths 
of the Northern journals have been industri- 
ously engaged in manufacturing public senti- 
ment to his injury. I know my notes are 
very imperfect — that I have lost much which 
would have been valuable^o history ; but such 
brief memoirs as I made were not originally 
intended for publication, but for my own 
pleasure or instruction, and that of my family; 
and it has been my conscientious effort to 
report him as he was, neither inventing any 
new sentiments to put in his mouth, or sup- 
pressing any material views on public ques- 
tions which appeared in my note-book. In 



of Jefferso^i Davis, 371 

many of the important political conversations, 
let me add, the words are as nearly as possible 
the exact language used by Mr. Davis, my 
memoranda upon such matters having been 
made as full as possible. 

His self-control was the feature of his char- 
acter, knowing that his temper had been high 
and proud, which most struck me during my 
attendance. His reticence was remarked on 
subjects where he knew we must differ; and 
though occasionally speaking with freedom of 
slavery, it was as a philosopher rather than as 
a politician — rather as a friend to the negro, 
and one sorry for his inevitable fate in the 
future, than with rancor or acrimony against 
those opponents of the institution whom he 
persisted in regarding as responsible for the 
war, with all its attendant horrors and sacri- 
fices. Of the "abolitionists," as such, he 
never spoke, though often of the anti-slavery 
sentiment ; and he impressed me as having in 
good faith accepted the new order of things 
which the late struggle and its suppression 
have made necessary, 



372 The Prison. Life 

The Southern States have been- essentially 
conquered by military force, and now — taking 
the worst view of the case — -await such terms 
as the conqueror may see fit to impose. The 
problem before all good men in the country — 
that for which our soldiers and sailors poured 
out their blood, and all loyal men labored and 
made sacrifices in their respective spheres — is 
the restoration of the Union as it existed in 
harmony, glory, and prosperity before the 
recent war, with, of course, such changes and 
modifications as the rebellion may have 
proved necessary. The writer believes it 
will be found that the men who were chief 
actors in the late rebellion, are now the 
promptest and most clear-headed in accept- 
ing its results ; are not only willing but soli- 
citous to accept and forward all such changes 
as the new order of things may render requi- 
site ; passing a sponge over the political 
errors of the past, and now only aiming to 
direct their people in the road by which the 
material prosperity and glory of the Union, 
one and undivisible, may be most quickly 



of J'efferson Davis. 373 

secured for the benefit of all interests and 
sections. 

Mr. Davis is remarkable for the kindliness 
of his nature and fidelity to friends. Of none 
of God's creatures does he seem to wish or 
speak unkindly; and the same fault found 
with Mr. Lincoln — unwillingness to sanction 
the military severities essential to maintain 
discipline — is the fault I have heard most 
strongly urged against Mr. Davis. 

As for the rest, the character of Mr. Davis, 
we believe, will receive justice in history. 
Mistaken in devotion to a theory of State 
sovereignty, which, before the recent war, 
was all but universally accepted by the peo- 
ple of both sections, he engaged reluctantly 
(as he says) in a rebellion for the sustainment 
of his faith. He and those who thought and 
acted with him have suffered terribly for that 
error ; but it can be neither magnanimity nor 
wisdom to slander or oppress them in their 
moment of misfortune. It is by the concilia- 
tory and generous policy of President An- 
drew Johnson that the bleeding gashes of 



374 ^'^^ Prison Life 

the body politic are to be bound up and 
healed ; and in a restoration of the Union as 
it existed before the late sad conflict — with 
only slavery abolished, the rebel debt repudi- 
ated, and the national debt accepted in good 
faith — the aspirations of those who served in 
our army and navy will be most happily real- 
ized. If Mr. Davis has been guilty of any 
private crime, such as connivance with the 
assassination of Mr. Lincoln or unauthorized 
cruelties to our prisoners, no punishment 
can be too heavy for him ; but let the fact of 
his guilt be established in fair and open trial 
If, on the other hand, his only guilt has been 
rebellion, let a great nation show the truest 
quality of greatness — magnanimity — by includ- 
ino: him in the wide folds of that act of am- 
nesty and oblivion, in which all his minor 
partners, civil and military, in the late Con- 
federacy are now so wisely enveloped. Make 
him a martyr and his memory is dangerous; 
treat him with the generosity of liberation, and 
he both can and, we think, will be a power 
for good in the future of peace and restored 



of Jefferson Davis. 375 

prosperity which we hope for the Southern 
States. 

Believing that the views of Mr. Davis may 
throw important light on the true policy to 
be pursued, the author noted down all such 
as he could remember, or has had made notes 
of, as faithfully and as conscientiously as if 
giving his evidence under oath in a court of 
justice. Nowhere has he sought to better by 
concealment or misrepresentation the actual 
character or views of the person for whom he 
confesses that his professional, and finally his 
personal sympathies, have been warmly en- 
listed; and the only points he has been led 
to suppress — and they have been very few — 
were such merely medical details as neither 
the public would care for, nor any physician be 
authorized to expose. " Be just even to your 
enemies," is not only one of the noblest, but 
wisest maxims which antiquity has left us ; 
and there is another like unto it : " It is law- 
ful, even from your enemies, to learn wis- 
dom." 

And now with some few suggestive ques- 



37^ ^/^^ Prison Life 

tions, this final chapter will be brought to a 
close. 

Has any evidence yet brought before the 
Reconstruction Committee of our Congress 
been franker, clearer, more evidently honest, 
or more heartily aiming to bring before the 
country the actual needs, wishes, and aspira- 
tions of the South than that of such gentlemen 
as Robert E. Lee, Alexander H. Stephens, and 
the other late leaders of the rebellion, who 
have been examined, and whose testimony 
has been spread before the public ? And has 
there not been manifest in all such testimony 
yet taken, an unreserved acquiescence in the 
results of the recent war, and a very earnest 
desire to restore the relations of the Union 
on a basis of harmony, good faith, and future 
complete assimilation of interests and institu- 
tions which shall endure for ever? The in- 
telligent of the beaten rebels are to-day, and 
likely to remain, as faithful supporters of the 
Union as can be found on the face of the 
globe — is not this conceded? And while the 
opinions of the gentlemen examined have been 



of yefferson Davis, 377 

regarded and treated by the highest authority 
as of deserved importance in aiding us to 
solve the problem of reconstruction — can it 
be wise, we ask, that those of Mr. Davis, their 
confessedly ablest leader in the political field, 
and the m^an most powerful over the affec- 
tions and confidence of the Southern masses, 
should be now ignored in silence, or for ever 
suppressed in the silent cell of an untried and 
unconvicted imprisonment? For the crime 
of treason, not one of these — not the humblest 
official under the late re'bellion — was one whit 
more or less, guilty than the man whom they 
elected their titular President ; and if any 
other crimes can be alleged against him, in 
the name of justice, and for the honor of our 
whole country, both now and in the hereafter, 
are not his friends and suffering family enti- 
tled to demand that he may have an early 
and impartial trial as provided by the laws of 
our country? 

THE END. 



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THE STAR AND THE CLOUD. — do. 

TRUE TO THE LAST. do. 

HOW COULD HE HELP IT ? dO. 

LIKE AND UNLIKE. dO. 

LOOKING AROUND. do. 

WOMAN, OUR ANGEL. . do. 



In press. 



i2mo. cloth, $1.50 

$1.50 
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Ricbard R Kimball. 

WAS HE SUCCESSFUL. — A nOVCl. 

UNDERCURRENTS. — do. 

SAINT LEGER. do. 

ROMANCE OF STUDENT LIFE. — do. 

IN THE TROPICS. do. 

THE PRINCE OF KASHNA. dO. 

EMiLiE.— A sequel to " St. Leger." In press. 
Orpbeus C. Kerr. 

THE ORPHEUS c. KERR PAPERS. — Comic letters and humorous 



i2mo. cloth, $1.75 
$1.75 

$1-75 
$1.75 
$1.75 
$1.75 



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military criticisms 



Three series. 
Edmund Kirke. 

A Southern sketch. 



i2mo. cloth, $1.50 



AMONG THE PINES.- 

MY SOUTHERN FRIENDS. do. 

DOWN IN TENNESSEE. do. 

ADRIFT IN DIXIE. dO. 

AMONG THE GUERILLAS. — do. 

A NEW BOOK. — In press. do. 



i2mo. cloth, 
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1.50 
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$1.50 
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T. S. Arthur's New Works. 



i2mo. cloth, $1.50 
I1.50 
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LIGHT ON SHADOWED PATHS. A nOVCl. 

OUT IN THE WORLD. do, . 

NOTHING BUT MONEY. do. . 

WHAT CAME AFTERWARDS. dO. . 

OUR NEIGHBORS. — In press. do. . 

Robinson Crusoe. 

A handsome illustrated edition, complete. i2mo. cloth, $1.50 
Joseph Rodman Drake. 

THE CULPRIT FAY.— A facry poem. . i2mo. cloth, $1.25 

AN ILLUSTRATED EDITION. — With I GO cxquisitc illustrations on 

wood. . . Quarto, beautifully printed and bound, $5.00 

Elpidcmic Cliolcra. 

A haufly-book for successful treatment. i2mo. cloth, $1.00 



LIST OF BOOKS PUBLISHED 



Cuthbert^Bede. 

VERDANT GREEN. — A rolHcking, humorous novel of English stu- 
dent life ; with 200 comic illustrations. i2mo. cloth, $1.50 
Private Miles O'Reilly. 
BAKED MEATS OF THE FUNERAL. — A new comic book of songs, 
speeches, essays, banquets, etc. . i2mo. cloth, $1.75 
LIFE AND ADVENTURES — with comic illustrations. do. $1.50 

M. Miclielet's Remarkable AVorks. 
LOVE (l'amour). — From the French. . . i2mo. cloth, $1.50 

WOMAN (la FEM me). — do. . . . do. $1.50 

X Slieridan iLe Fanu. 

wylder's hand. — A powerful new novel. i2mo. cloth, $1.75 

THE HOUSE BY THE CHURCHYARD. do. do. $1-75 

Rev. John Cumining, D.D., of London. 

THE GREAT TRIBULATION. TwO SCrieS. I2mO. cloth, $1.50 

THE GREAT PREPARATION. — do. . do. $1 5© 

THE GREAT CONSUMMATION. do. . do. $1.50 

Ernest Renan. 

THE LIFE OF JESUS. — From the French work. i2mo. cloth, $1.75 

RELIGIOUS HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 8vO. cloth, $2.50 

Popular Italian Novels. 

DOCTOR ANTONIO. — A love story. By Rufifini. i2mo. cloth, $1.75 
viNCENzo. — do. do. do. $1.75 

BEATRICE cENOi. — By Gucrrazzi, with portrait. do. $1-75 

diaries Reade. 
THE CLOISTER AND THE HEARTH. — A magnificent ncw novel — 
the best this author ever wrote. . . 8vo. cloth, $2.00 

Tlse Opera. 

TALES FROM THE OPERAS. — A collection of clcvcr stories, based 
upon the plots of all the famous operas. i2mo. cloth, $1.50 

Robert R, Roosevelt. 

THE GAME-FISH OF THE NORTH. — Illustrated. i2mo. cloth, $2.00 

SUPERIOR FISHING. do. do. $2.00 

THE GAME-BIRDS OF THE NORTH. do. $2.00 

Jolin Plioenix. 

THE SQUiBOB PAPERS. — A uew humorous volume, filled with 
comic illustrations by the author. i2mo. cloth, $1.50 

Matthew Hale Smith. 

MOUNT CALVARY. — Meditatious in sacred places. i2mo. $2.00 

p. T. Rarnum. 
THE HUMBUGS OF THE WORLD. — TwO ScricS. I2mO. cloth, $1,75 



BY OEO. W. CARLETON, NEW YORK. 



fValter Barrett, Clerk. 

THE OLD MERCHANTS OF NEW YORK. — Pcrsonal incidents, sketches, 

bits of biography, and events in the life of leading merchants 

in New York. Four series. . . . i2mo. cloth, $1.75 

irradame Octavia Walton lie Vert. 

SOUVENIRS OF TRAVEL. New edition. Large i2mo. cloth, $2.00 

Kate Marstone. 
A new and very interesting tale. . . i2mo. cloth, $1.50 

By " Sentinel." 
WHO GOES THERE? — Or men and events. i2mo. cloth, $1.50 

Junius Brutus Bootb. 
MEMORIALS OF "the ELDER BOOTH." — Theactor. i2mo.cloth, $1.50 

H. T. Sperry. 

COUNTRY LOVE VS. CITY FLIRTATION. — A Capital new society tale, 

with twenty superb illustrations byHoppin. i2mo. cloth, $2.00 

JEpes Sargent. 

PEOULLAR. — A remarkable new novel. i2mo. cloth, $1.75 

Cuyler Pine. 
MARY BRANDEGEE. — A vcry powcrful novcl, i2mo. cloth, $1.75 

A NEW NOVEL. — Ift pVCSS do. $1-75 

Klislia Kent Kane. 
LOVE-LiFB OF DR. KANE and Margaret Fox. i2mo. cloth, $1.75 

Motlicr Goose for Grown Folks* 

HUMOROUS RHYMES for grown people. i2mo. cloth, $1.25 

III. T. \WalfVortli. 

LULU. — A new American novel . . i2mo. cloth, $1.50 

HOTSPUR. — do. .... do. $1.50 

STORMCLIFF. do. . . . , do. $1.75 

Captain Semmes. 

THE CRUISE OF THE ALABAMA AND SUMTER. — I2mO. cloth, $2.00 

Amelia B. Edwards. 

BALLADS. — By author of" Barbara's History." i2mo, cloth, $1.50 

Mrs. Jervey (Caroline H. Glover). 

HELEN courtenay's PROMISE. — A ncw novcl. i2mo. cloth, $1.75 

S . J. H 

THB M0NTANA3. — A new American novel. i2mo. cloth, $1.75 

OT. A. Fisher. 
A spinster's STORY. — A ncw novel. . i2mo. cloth, $1.75 



8 LIST OF BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CARLTON, NEW YORK. 

IU:iscel1aneou« Works. 

NOTES ON SHAKSPEARE. — By Jas. H. Hackett. i2mo. cloth, $1.50 

FREE GOVERNMENT IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. do. $3.00 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A NEW ENGLAND FARM-HOUSE. — do. $1-75 

NEPENTHE. — A iicw novcl do. $1.50 

TOGETHER. do. . . . . do. $150 

LOVERS AND THINKERS. do do. $1.50 

POEMS. — By Gay H. Naramore. . . . do. $1.50 

GOMERY OF MONTGOMERY. — By C. A. Washbum. do. $2.00 

viOTOiRE. — A new novel do. $1.75 

POEMS. — By Mrs. Sarah T. Bolton. . . do. $1.50 

SUPPRESSED BOOK ABOUT SLAVERY. . . do. $2.00 

JOHN guilderstring's SIN. — A novcl. . . do. $1.50 

CENTEOLA. — By authoT " Green Mountain Boys." do. $1.50 

RED TAPE AND PIGEON-HOLE GENERALS. . do. $1.50 

TREATISE ON DEAFNESS. — By Dr. E. B. Ugh thill, do. $1.50 

AROUND THE PYRAMIDS. — By Gen. Aaron Ward. do. $1.50 

CHINA AND THE CHIN(-SE. — By W. L. G. Smith. do. $1.50 

THE yachtman's PRIMER. — By T. R. Warren. do. 50 cts. 

EDGAR POE AND HIS CRITICS. — By Mrs. Whitman, do. $1.00 

MARRIED OFF. — lUustratcd Satirical Poem. do. 50 cts. 

THE FLYING DUTCHMAN. — J. G. Saxc, illustrated, do. 75 cts. 

ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. — Life and Travcls. do. $1.50 

LIFE OF HUGH MILLER. — The Celebrated geologist, do. $1.50 

THE RUSSIAN BALL. — Illustratcd Satirical poem. do. 50 cts 

THE SNOBLACE BALL. do. do. do. do. 50 CtS. 

AN ANSWER TO HUGH MILLER. By T. A. DavicS. do $1.50 

COSMOGONY. — By Thomas A Davies. . . 8vo. cloth, $200 

TWENTY YEARS arouud the world. J. Guy Vassar. do, $3-75 

BUBAL ARCHITECTURE. — By M. Field, illustrated, do. $2.00 



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